Knights' Battlefront part 2
by Designed Metal
Summary: One year after the Black Rebellion, the Magic Knights and their followers are captured by the Knights of the Round. Before being executed at Pendragon, they break free and are making a run back to Cephiro, with Britannia hot on their trail. Later on, truths will be revealed as new alliances will be formed, but at a price.
1. Mokona the Stowaway

_Story so far..._

 _When Britannia has begun their attack upon the New World of Cephiro, Hikaru and the Magic Knights took up arms once again, with the aid of their Rune Gods, to drive away the very same invaders that they have underestimated seven years prior. During the fight to save Cephiro from Britannia, the Magic Knights formed an allegiance with Zero and the Order of the Black Knights. It was since then, the two mighty forces of Japan and Cephiro have fought together to push away the Empire from their doorstep. However, not every Japanese citizen is having it. Upon learning that a young Japanese/ Eleven has joined forces with the Holy Britannian Empire as one of the Knights serving their princesses, Hikaru is now caught up in a conflict with Suzaku Kururugi, who was once childhood friends with her and Lelouch. After failing to reason with the Eleven turned Honorary Britannian, Hikaru and the Magic Knights are now being pushed forward into a war involving all three sides in Area 11, considering Suzaku as her number-one nemesis._

 _Although, Hikaru and her friends successfully rescued the captured Cephirians from the Britannian Government Bureau during the Black Rebellion, with the aid of Cephiro's Alliance and the Black Knights, Zero abruptly vanished during the fight and was presumed dead. Unable to continue without their masked leader giving out orders anymore, the Black Knights fell apart, losing their act of independence in forming the United States of Japan. Therefore, only a handful of Black Knights fled into the shadows, unable to rebel against Britannia_ , while most of them were captured and taken prisoner in the Tokyo Settlement.

 _As for the Magic Knights and the armies of Cephiro's Alliance, a dozen of them were captured, detained, and locked up in Pendragon to await their fate. However, when Mokona stowed away onboard the very same ship that hauled the Magic Knights to their final destination, the little white rabbit came up with a daring plan to free the Magic Knights from their captivity one year later._

 ***For those who are wondering how Mokona was able to help Hikaru get her powers back at the execution grounds in Pendragon, it all started right when Mokona stowed away onboard the Avalon one year earlier...***

After staying inside his hiding spot for several hours in silence, Mokona slowly lifted up the lid of the crate and looked around. Seeing that no one else is in the storage room, Mokona slowly came out of the crate and quietly close the lid before moving on. As he made his way to the sliding door leading to the ship's corridors, Mokona tip-toed quietly on the metal flooring, hoping that he won't make any noise. The moment he went into the corridors of the Avalon, he listens closely to any unsuspecting crew members before navigating around the ship. Without hesitation, Mokona cast an invisibility spell on himself, turning into a phased-out ghost. Just when two crew members walked through the corridor where Mokona was standing, the little white rabbit held his breath as he waited the crew members to walk right past him.

After the two Britannians left, Mokona made light steps around the corridor trying to find the map of the ship's interior. In a few minutes later, while undercover, Mokona eventually finds the map of the ship near the engine room. However, the map is 10 feet above from where Mokona is standing. Feeling frustrated for not being able to jump high enough to grab the map, Mokona was about to give up when all of a sudden, Primera makes her appearance as she appeared from a nearby sliding door behind him on his left, flying a few inches above an invisible Mokona.

At first, Primera wasn't able to see Mokona. But in a split second, the little fairy felt a heavy pounce land on top of her, making her lose her flight before plummeting to the ground.

"What the...?" Primera shrieked before her mouth was covered by an invisible hand. Before she knew it, Primera hears a silent "Pu Pu" noise.

"Mokona, is that you?!" Primera said in a muffled voice.

As Mokona unveiled his invisibility spell, he dragged the fairy into a nearby empty room before Primera could say anything.

"Mokona, when did you get here?" Primera asked when the white ball of fluff shot out a harmless beam at the fairy's forehead.

After getting stunned by the beam's effects for a few minutes, Primera felt satisfied when she learned of Mokona's recent actions through his immediate flashback.

"You sure have a really great way of sneaking around did you?!" Primera asked Mokona.

"Pu! Pu!" Mokona nodded in a positive tone.

"Well, when I saw Lantis and his Knightmare get towed away onboard this ship by one of those Brit weirdos, I immediately hid behind his knightmare until it landed inside the hangar." Primera explained to herself. "Just when they took Lantis away into one of the prison cells inside the ship, I tried to follow them but I almost got caught in the hallways. Right after I got away from them, consequently I lost track of where they took Lantis. Perhaps you can help me?"

After listening to Primera's speech, Mokona had a light bulb lit up above his head, as he came up with a brilliant idea on how to rescue Hikaru and the Magic Knights. Mokona grabbed Primera's hand and took her to the very same spot where he saw the little fairy. Before Primera could say anything, Mokona pointed towards the map above him as if he wanted the fairy to get it. Upon learning what Mokona wanted her to do, Primera flew up and grabbed the map of the ship from the wall and lead Mokona back into the room that they're both hiding in.

As they put on map on the table inside the room they're in, Primera and Mokona looked closely at the map's details. After surveying the map, the two little creatures found that the prison floor is one floor below them. The only way to make it down below without getting caught is by the ventilation shaft. Without wasting anymore time, Mokona climbed up the metal shelves in front of him and went up to the vents, with Primera flying towards them behind Mokona. The moment the two little creatures went inside the vents, they crawled towards shaft leading down to the next floor. On the way to their destination, Mokona and Primera see various Britannian crew members hanging out in the crew quarters, the mess hall, and in the medical ward below them, unaware of their presence.

Infuriated of how Lantis was captured by those Britannian goons, Primera made all sorts of moody faces, ranging from spitting her tongue out at them in silence to stretching down her cheeks and made silly mocking gestures. Not wanting Primera to waste time on such lame expressions, Mokona kept dragging her along while making his way down to the next floor.

"Pu! Pu!" Mokona scolded Primera while giving the fairy a stern look.

"Yeah, whatever!" Primera replied in embarrassment.

After slowly crawling through the vents, Mokona looks down below him and see all three Magic Knights locked up in separate cells, still wearing their straitjackets as it restrains them from moving their arms. Before Mokona could make his move to help any of them escape the ship, the doors open in front of Hikaru.

Upon hearing the doors open up, Hikaru looks up towards her captors in anger and in silence. In front of the Knight of Fire, Hikaru sees Prince Schneizel appear before her and gave her a small smirk on his face.

"So, you must be that Knight Eleven that Cornelia and Euphy was talking about or should I say the Pillar of Cephiro?!" The 2nd Prince of Britannia spoke calmly. "Hikaru Shidou, isn't it?! It's been an honor to meet you."

"Yeah, what of it?!" Hikaru glared at Schneizel in disgust. "I thought for sure that your country will no know nothing of the world that we cared for. But it was thanks to a cruel Prince Clovis that we were proven wrong! What's worse is that it was because of him that we had no choice but to fend off Britannia from Cephiro."

"Well, Prince Clovis is my younger brother!" Schneizel replied. "You should at least try to understand us a bit more, than rather get overzealous after you and your friends took a trip to another world and became heroes of its people despite your lack of citizenry there."

"Why should I?" Hikaru asked, feeling offended by where Schneizel is getting at. "I already have waited for seven long years to find ways to get along with the Britannians but it was hopeless. Anyway, I still thought of Cephiro the same way as I thought of my former homeland. Just who are you?!"

"My apologies, Lady Hikaru. I guess I should've introduced myself first. I am Schneizel el Britannia, the second prince and Prime Minister of the Holy Britannian Empire!" Schneizel said in a calm, prideful tone. "I know Prince Clovis from the back of my hand. Though, he does get pretty vain when using his authority as Viceroy of Area 11. But he was sent to another campaign in another world, leaving my sister Cornelia in charge as the next Viceroy. I do want to apologize for his behavior and for that, I'll have a good long talk with him very soon."

"Well, I doubt she'll ever continue her awful campaign in Area 11, especially when I was able to put her down by force!" Hikaru smirked in amusement. "I mean, Cornelia took away my family seven years ago only for them to serve under her feet until just recently."

"It's still never too late to start over again, whether or not my siblings caused you trouble in your deprived childhood!" Schneizel grinned. "Now that I thought about your expertise and your combat abilities on the battlefield, I can't help but feel impressed by your actions. When I watched you during that incident at Mt Fuji, you remind me a lot like Suzaku and Cornelia."

"You were watching me the whole time?!" Hikaru said in shock. "Not that I cared about it, I couldn't help but feel traumatized after Euphy gave out that crazed order to have my people get slaughtered at Mt. Fuji. I wanted to hate her for doing that, I really do. However, I still think that something is going on in Euphy's head that what meets the eye, since Clef was able to sense it."

"Your guess is as good as mine. I was totally shocked after witnessing such madness back at Mt. Fuji." Schneizel added in. "I seriously doubt Euphy would ever pull such a thing, since she's my little sister. So, I'll do my best to investigate Euphy's case further, only when the time is right. Other than that, if you join us, we'll overlook everything that happened starting when you and your friends entered the New World when Clovis was there. I'll even make you as one of our Knights too. You do that and your friends shall live, do it not and you'll be tried for witchcraft and executed at Pendragon."

"You wish. I mean, you don't even know me and I sure as hell I don't know anything about you." Hikaru said, feeling offended by what Schneizel is offering. "I've been protecting Cephiro for a long time, not just a Magic Knight or as their Pillar, but as an honorable hero. Besides, I have already waited long enough to give Britannia a chance to display their peace offerings only for it to end in total failure. So, I can assure you, I'll never deliver Cephiro to the likes of you. Never!"

"Then, you might as well meet your fate my dear!" Schneizel smriked at Hikaru. "At Pendragon, it'll be crawling with Britannian Soldiers accompanied by the Knights of the Round. I don't think any of the Black Knights from Area 11 or the native warriors of the New World will ever launch any attacks at our capital just to save you. If they did, they'll get obliterated in a blink of an eye."

"Knights of the Round?!" Hikaru asked, as her eyes widened.

Upon hearing what Schneizel just said, Hikaru may be facing more adversaries if she every found a way to break free from her imprisonment in Britannian custody.

"They happened to be the strongest warriors in all of the Holy Britannian Empire!" Schneizel explained. "Some were serving the Royal Family of the Empire very closely. Each of them has been bled by the Emperor himself for their act of heroism and honor! They were in Area 11 when they brought you onboard the Avalon, along with the other Magic Knights and the Leaders of the New World."

"I hope you haven't done anything to them because they're all friends of mine, Schneizel!" Hikaru snarled. "You lay a hand on any of them by the time I break free from these restraints and I'm going smash your head in with Rayearth's feet!"

"Nice try, kid." Schneizel laughed in amusement. "Anyway, I have other matters to attend to. In the meantime, you might as well think twice before going after my siblings."

The moment Schneizel makes his way out of Hikaru's prison cell, Bismarck Waldstein appears in the corridors. Before Schneizel left, Bismarck took a bow towards the second prince of Britannia. He happens to be the Knight of One in the Holy Britannian Empire. As he made his appearance in front of the restrained Knight of Fire, he grinned at Hikaru as if he thought she was a joke. He was a tall, muscular man who is wearing a white cloak with golden linings. He had dark-blue hair and blue eyes, though his left eye has been sewn shut due to the fact that he has a future-seeing geass ability concealed within it. After taking a good look at the red-haired Eleven Knight, Bismarck couldn't stop laughing from the fact that she was the one who started a revolution in the New World.

"I never thought that the Knights from the New World would actually be a bunch of lowly female Elevens that made quite a show at Area 11." Bismarck cackled. "I was expecting more from that!"

"Really?" Hikaru glared at the Knight of One as he lifted her chin up with his two fingers.

"You may have gotten past Princess Cornelia, but you haven't faced off someone like me!" Bismarck continued as he smirked at the Red-haired girl. "Defying the members of the Royal Family will be the last thing you would ever want to do, especially when relying on a weird Knightmare like yours! Hope you had fun here little lady, because you won't live to see the next era of the Britannian Imperial Rule."

After Bismarck lets go off Hikaru, he left the prison cell as he silently cackled to himself.

After looking at Hikaru for a while, Mokona continued on to find where they took Hikaru's magic glove at. The white fluff ball thought about rescuing Hikaru but he still needs to find a way to plan ahead first. Otherwise, he'll be caught causing a breakout, along with Primera. While scurrying though the vents in finding Hikaru's magic glove, he and Primera eventually looked down and spotted a white lab below him. After taking a good look at what's in the lab, they spotted several scientists studying and analyzing the magic gloves belonging to Umi, Fuu, and Hikaru. They went inside separate capsules. While doing their work, the scientists were using all their computers to scan the magic gloves for any data. As Mokona is about to come up with a plan to retrieve the magic gloves, Lloyd Asplund and Cecil Croomy entered the lab.

When the Earl of Pudding went up to one of the scientists while conducting all sorts of tests over the magic glove belonging to Hikaru.

"So, what have you got?" Lloyd asked the scientist.

"It seems that those Knight Elevens were using these powered up gloves to bring out their own Knightmares into the battlefield for a very long time!" The scientist spoke clearly to the Earl. "I don't know how did it happen, but I bet that Black Knights Researcher must've used an experimental piece of technology to strengthen their abilities in Knightmare combat."

"Can I take a look at it?" Lloyd asked, in a curious tone.

After the scientist got out of his seat, Lloyd sat down near the computer before taking a good look at the Magic Knight's machines from the computer screen. Lloyd couldn't help but feel awestruck by such changes to their Rune God Knightmares. Behind Lloyd, Cecil approached the computer to see what the Earl is looking at. The moment Cecil looked closely at the data from the Magic Knight's gloves, she felt a bit jealous of how unique they naturally function.

"We may need their power to strengthen the Britannian Knightmares before they assume their attack upon the New World," Cecil suggested Lloyd.

"It may be easier said than done. Those Knight Elevens are full of unpredictable surprises. Remember when Lady Anya told us about that one Knightmare that was actually fused from all three of their Knightmares? It's power can be even more terrifying than the experimental Gawain that Rakshata finished." Lloyd said, feeling anxious in researching the Magic Knight's machines overall strengths.

"Since Prince Clovis was able to send in the data of their machine's strengths and weaknesses to us from the NSX, I'm sure we'll work something out in developing something new from the Magic Knight's Knightmares." Cecil said with confidence and determination.

"I hope you're right." Lloyd said in a nervous tone.

"All hands, this is Prince Schneizel!" The intercom spoke from within the lab. "We are requesting all hands to report to the bridge immediately. We'll be heading to Pendragon in T-minue 30 minutes!"

Upon hearing the announcement, Lloyd, Cecil, and all of the scientists abandoned their work and left the lab.

Seizing the opportunity, Mokona watched all of the Britannians leave the labs before carrying out his plan.

"So, Mokona, how do you think we're going to recover those magic gloves from them?" Primera asked.

As Mokona opened up the vent and before he dropped into the lab, he peered his head from the lab's ceiling to look for any active surveillance cameras. After looking around from the vents, Mokona spotted one camera hanging above the ceiling at a corner left of the sliding door. When Mokona waved his arm to have Primera come over to his position, Mokona pointed at the camera for he wanted her to neutralize it.

When Primera flapped her wings, she hovered close to the ceiling as she went down from the shaft and flew towards the camera's blind spot. The moment Primera went behind the camera, she pulled off its cables, making it shut down before Mokona moved in.

Back at the command bridge, one of the crew members spotted that the surveillance video leading to the lab has been cut off.

"Sir, we lost connection with the surveillance camera inside the labs." The Crew member said, making his report to the Captain of the Avalon.

"Send in a security team and investigate what has caused it!" The captain ordered.

"Yes sir!"

Back at the labs, Primera picked up a nearby small axe from the tool cabinet and started hacking into the capsule containing one of the magic gloves. After a few whacks, the capsule broke, letting the shattered glass fall onto the floor. Without hesitation, Primera grabbed the blue magic glove belonging to Umi's and threw it to where Mokona was at. The moment Mokona caught Umi's glove, he used his magic to teleport it into his inventory.

However, before Primera was about to get the second glove, the two little creatures heard foots steps heading straight into the labs.

"Mokona, I think I hear them coming closer. What should we do-waaaaaaaggghhh?!" Primera asked before she started freaking out when Mokona grabbed her hand.

The little fairy suddenly get tossed out of the labs by a snickering Mokona.

In his mind, Mokona insisted on using Primera as a distraction while he continued to recover Hikaru's and Fuu's magic gloves. As soon as the little fairy gets thrown outside of the labs, Mokona cackled as he closed the sliding doors in front of Primera.

"HEY! WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?!" Primera shouted in anger as she started pounding on the closed doors.

Before Primera could get a response from the mischievous Mokona, a group of four Britannian Marines spotted her and immediately alerted the captain.

"Captain, we have an intruder alert!" The Marine spoke through his intercom.

"Uh Oh!" Primera gasped, realizing that she's been found out. Not wanting to stand around, Primera flapped her wings and flew as fast as a speeding bullet in order to evade capture but not before she muttered in anger over what Mokona just did.

"I'll get you for this, Mokona!"

While the security team was chasing Primera all over the ship, Mokona continued on where he left off. After snickering to himself for using Primera as a distraction, Mokona grabbed the ax with both of hands and jumped up high before slamming it on top of the second capsule.

As the capsule shattered, Mokona felt the heavy weight coming from the axe that he was holding. The moment the ax struck the capsule, he felt a vibration as Mokona bounced backwards before land on the floor with his back. Mokona immediately jumped back on top of the second capsule and put Fuu's glove in his inventory.

For the third magic glove, Mokona was about to recover it only to see that the axe was broken into two pieces from the resulting vibration. Feeling undaunted over a damaged axe, Mokona backed all the way to a nearby corner and charged at the third capsule, using his white body as a small battering ram. In such a fast pace, Mokona jumped towards the third capsule and body slammed it forward, making it topple over before it hit the ground. As a result, Mokona's stomach hurt a bit for using too much force on the capsule, making the white furball collapse on the floot, struggling to catch his breath.

When the third capsule fell to the ground and shattered, it caught the attention of someone outside of the labs.

"Who's in there?!"

As Mokona gasped upon hearing a voice coming from outside of the labs, Mokona pushed himself up, ignoring the pain in his body, and grabbed Hikaru's glove before he bounced on top of the tool cabinet and disappeared back into the vents. In a split second, Mokona used his magic to pick up the ventilation grate and closed it back up just when the security team entered the lab.

When the Britannian security looked around, they see three shattered capsules in front of them, a broken pick ax next to the vandalized scene, and a security camera that had its wires ripped off.

"What just happened here?!" One of the Britannian Marines spoke in confusion.

Just when Lloyd and Cecil emerged from within the security team, they realized that the magic gloves that they were analyzing just disappeared.

"No way, those gloves are gone. All three of them are gone!" Lloyd shrieked.

"I think someone stowed away on this ship and grabbed them. We need to have this entire ship searched!" Cecil suggested the Earl of Pudding.

When the security team scrambled to find the stowaway, Mokona grinned in amusement that they haven't realized that he recovered all three of the magic gloves belonging to the Magic Knights of the New World. Before Mokona could make his way back to where Hikaru and the others are being held up, he heard vibrating all over the vents, rendering him unable to move inside the vents. After a few minutes, the vibrating stopped, letting Mokona give the opportunity to make his way back to the vents leading to the prison cells. However, by the time he got there, Mokona looks down and sees Hikaru and her friends get dragged away by the Britannians. It turns out that the ship has landed at their destination.

But not that it matters, Mokona takes out the map of the ship and used it to direct him to the ship's exit. While on the way out of the ship, Mokona makes his silent vow to save the Magic Knights as he started cackling and snickering to himself with delight and determination.


	2. Pendragon Chaos

After being hauled off the Avalon, the moment it landed on top of a landing pad in behind the Britannian Palace, the Magic Knights and their followers are being sent to the prison facility below the Britannian Palace in Pendragon. While taking the prisoners away, Mokona hid behind one of ship's landing gears as to a peak at Hikaru getting escorted out by a squad of Britannian Marines. As Mokona looked harder at the prisoners, he sees Primera locked up inside a bird cage that's being carried around by Bismarck Waldstein.

Primera was sitting inside cage in silence and in anger after what Mokona did to her. The fairy couldn't believe that Mokona would use her as live bait to keep the Britannians busy earlier. With that said, Primera was thinking of how to get back at the white ball of fluff once she escapes her bird cage.

"I can't believe this little creature was stowed away onboard the Avalon!" Bismarck retorted.

"Well for your information brute, I came to get Lantis back!" Primera scoffed at the Knight of One.

"Very funny!" Bismarck cackled. "Well, you'll be locked up along with the rest of those fools from Area 11 and from the New World!"

"I'll go meet up with the Emperor to address a full report over what happened at the Tokyo Settlement!" Schneizel announced as he made his way into the palace, along with Prince Clovis and their Royal escort.

After seeing Hikaru and her friends disappear down the stairs from the landing pad, Mokona teleported itself somewhere safe to hide within Pendragon.

Shortly after Hikaru gets locked up inside Temple Tower, she sees several other Cephirian warriors, Umi, and Fuu get locked up in individual cells. As she pouted over not being able to escape the Britannians right after she helped the Cephirian natives escape back into the New World, Hikaru was wondering what kind of fate will she meet very soon.

As several more months pass by, Hikaru felt like that this may be the end of her campaign against Britannia, along with the aid of the Black Knights and Cephiro's alliance. During her first days in Temple Tower, Hikaru was frisked, tortured, and ridiculed by the Knights of the Round every time they paid a visit to her in her cell, while the rest of the Britannian Marines started gloating at the young female Knight Elevens. For Umi and Fuu, they experience a similar situation while in prison. As for Lantis and the other Cephirian warriors that were incarcerated, they received beatings and whiplashes while being interrogated by the Knights of the Round for information of the world of Cephiro. Not wanting to lose their loyalty towards their beloved country, the Cephirian Warriors and the Magic Knights refused to back down.

Eleven months later, which is one month before the executions, Hikaru was paid a private visit to Suzaku Kururugi in the middle of the night. This time, the Honorary Britannian is now dressed up in a similar fashion to that of the Knights of the Round, with the exception of wearing a blue cape. As Suzaku took a good look at his ex-friend, he sees the Knight of Fire covered up his bruises all over her face, with her back covered up in whiplashes. Before Hikaru could say anything, Suzaku makes his speech in front of the captured Knight Eleven.

"This is your last chance, Hikaru. Where is Princess Euphemia?!" Suzaku snarled as he took out his whip from underneath her cape.

"You'll be better off without Euphemia anyway. After all, she betrayed my trust before I even knew it!" Hikaru said in a lying tone of voice before getting whipped in the face.

As Hikaru's right cheek started bleeding from the immediate whiplash, she grunted in pain while trying to maintain her spirit.

"How dare you talk about her like that?!" Suzaku growled as he stretched the whip across his face with both of his hands tightly. "After you accepted her request to aid me in pushing back the Chinese Federation, you repaid her by capturing Euphy all because of an incident that costed hundreds of Japanese?! I really should've had you and your friends arrested sooner! I'm mean, YOU SIDE ARE YOU ON ANYWAY?"

"I'll always be siding with the Japanese and the natives of the New World because Japan is my home as well and Cephiro was my favorite peaceful paradise! I have people in both worlds that I want to protect and be happy about it." Hikaru grunted while resisting the pain on her face. "If you're obsessed with why Euphy gave out that order at Mt. Fuji, then you're asking the wrong person. I wouldn't be able to drive the Britannians away from Cephiro if it wasn't for Zero and the Black Knights. After all, we need their power and technology in order to use it to win against them, as well as restoring Cephiro's former glory."

"Well, I'll let you know one thing about Zero, he's not who you think he is! I mean, why trust him so easily if he's just going to use his Geass on people like her?" Suzaku asked the Knight of Fire sternly.

"I do know what you're talking about!" Hikaru jeered.

"I'm sure you're just saying that because you didn't want our fellow Japanese to get the wrong idea. Well, whether you believe me or not, this is what I found out about Zero..." Suzaku said before explaining the backstory when pursuing the AWOL leader of the Black Knights.

* * *

 _Flashback:_

 _As the Lancelot landed outside of the cave in Kamine Island, Suzaku disembarked from his white Knightmare and, the moment he dropped onto the rocks, he drew out his handgun before going after Zero. The moment he inside the cave, Kallen's Guren disembarked right next to the Lancelot in hopes of figuring out what is drawing Zero away from the battlefield._

 _As soon as Kallen entered the cave, following Suzaku while aiming her luger handgun at him, Suzaku makes his announcement out loud as he spoke out in front of Zero, but not before he ordered him to turn around and face the Honorary Britannian._

 _"Your Geass power is quite convenient for deceiving others that is!" Suzaku said, intercepting Zero's claims against Euphemia, making the masked figure gasp in horror. "With it, you get to hide in the shadows while others take the blame for doing your dirty work. You're just an arrogant coward, taking advantage of the Magic Knights of the New World and their followers. That's your true nature, the real you! Kallen, do you want to see Zero's true identity as well?!"_

 _"You can't be serious!" Kallen gasped while still aiming at Suzaku's head._

 _"Guess what?! You have the right to bear witness!" Suzaku continued as he aimed for top of Zero's helmet with his handgun._

 _"NO WAIT!" Kallen shrieked._

 _Before Kallen could make a move, Suzaku fired the shot first, hitting the mask at its top. In just a second later, the mask cracked downward in a line in the middle and split open in two. As Suzaku and Kallen looked straight at Zero's exposed face, both of their eyes widened as it turns out to Zero is actually none other than Lelouch Lamperouge from Ashford's student council, much to their shock and confusion._

 _The moment Lelouch's head started bleeding, while staring at them sternly, Kallen disengages her aim at Suzaku and collapsed onto her knees._

 _"But how? How could you?" Kallen said in total disarray._

 _"I didn't it want it to be you, Lelouch vi Britannia!" Suzaku signed before he shook his head and glared angrily at his once childhood friend seven years ago._

 _"L-Lelouch was...?!" Kallen stammered in confusion._

 _"Yes, I am Zero. The man who leads the Black Knights, who challenges the Holy Britannian Empire, unified the forces and heroes of the New World to fight for us, and the one who holds both worlds in his hand!" Lelouch announced fearlessly._

 _"Y-you used us, the Japanese People and the Cephirians? You used me and Hikaru?" Kallen whimpered in shock._

 _"As a result, Japan would be free and Cephiro will be liberated from Britannia's Invasion. You certainly can't complain with that!" Lelouch continued as he grinned at Kallen and Suzaku._

 _"I should've had you arrested when I had the chance!" Suzaku said as he thought about everything that happened between him and Lelouch all the way until now._

 _"You knew it was me?!" Lelouch asked._

 _"I was trying to convince myself that none of this is true." Suzaku pondered as he looked down on the ground for a while before facing Lelouch again. "I really wanted to believe in you. But now that I've seen more than what meets the eye, you've been lying to us; to me, Lady Hikaru, Kallen, and to your sisters Euphy and Nunnally."_

 _"Not that it matters, I had the Magic Knights and the Black Knights stay behind to keep Britannia distracted because Nunnally has been kidnapped." Lelouch said as he started getting straight to the point. "Please Suzaku, can we call a temporary truce? Together we can save Nunnally. There is nothing that you and I can't do together!"_

 _In the middle of Lelouch's offer, Kallen started looking down at herself not being able to come up with any words to say or how to react right now. She felt totally confused on what to do next._

 _"I'm done with that!" Suzaku retorted as he aimed his gun at Lelouch again in anger. "You actually ditched Hikaru to just to do something like this?! Well if you and Hikaru have joined up first, we wouldn't even be here! I mean, Euphemia has been kidnapped by Hikaru because of you and the princess' whereabouts right now are unknown! If you, Euphy, and Hikaru have combined forces, things would've been different and then the whole world would be..."_

 _"It's all in the past, over and done!" Lelouch said, interrupting Suzaku's angry speech._

 _"PAST?" Suzaku gasped, remembering the sins he caused as his eyes widened._

 _"You killed your own father, did you?! Hikaru may have killed Princess Emeraude three years ago. If she was able to move on, then so can you. So, wallow in remorse only when you have time for it!" Zero suggested to Suzaku._

 _"NO! YOU ARE HOPELESS!" Suzaku shouted lividly, denying Lelouch's idea as he struggled to hold onto his gun with both of his hands._

 _"WHAT?!" Lelouch gasped, feeling the sense of betrayal of Suzaku already._

 _"I know you! In the very end, you betrayed the entire world, the way it has betrayed you! You even betrayed the Magic Knights and the New World too!" Suzaku snarled as he added in his claims against Lelouch. "I'm not going to let your sick, twisted dream be realized!"_

 _"YOU FOOL!" Lelouch shouted back as he took out a small device from underneath his cape. "You think your ideals alone can change the world, unlike what Hikaru did to change Cephiro? Fine, then go ahead and shoot me! Set your aim at this liquid Sakuradite!"_

 _After seeing what Lelouch is doing to bait Suzaku, Kallen gasped in horror on where it is all head towards._

 _"As soon as my heart stops, this bomb will explode. Therefore, you will both die with me!" Lelouch continued, in hopes of bringing both him and two of the Japanese down together."Hikaru and the others will soon know that Zero has sacrificed himself to rid the world of the corruption that has descended upon the Elevens that submitted to the Empire."_

 _"DAMN YOU!" Suzaku growled, feeling more angrier from the fact that Lelouch is about to become a suicide bomber right in front of him and Kallen._

 _"However, if you tell me who told you about my Geass before Nunnally was abducted, I won't get any farther than that! We'll try to keep this quiet so that Hikaru and her friends know nothing for this at all!" Lelouch said, trying to make on last offer in order to have Suzaku stand down._

 _"NOTHING THAT HAPPENS NOW IS ANY OF YOUR CONCERN!" Suzaku shouted furiously as he is about to take Lelouch down by force._

 _Realizing that Suzaku cannot be reasoned with anymore, Lelouch started going from horror to anger as he started hearing what Suzaku is saying, in a hostile manner._

 _"You very existence is a mistake! You need to be erased from the face of the earth! I'LL TAKE CARE OF NUNNALLY!"_

 _The moment Lelouch started snarling in fury, he immediately took out his handgun and aimed it at Suzaku as they both started shouting out their names._

 _"SUZAKU!"_

 _"LELOUCH!"_

 _In just a split second, both Suzaku and Lelouch fired their handguns at each other, but missed by an inch away from their face. At the same time, Suzaku's bullet only hit Lelouch's gun by the side of the gun barrel. For Lelouch's bullet, it only hit and destroyed Suzaku's intercom that was onto his right ear. Not wanting to Lelouch to fired another shot, Suzaku jumped up in mid-air and spun a kick at Lelouch, knocking the gun away from his hands. The next thing Lelouch knew was that Suzaku slammed him onto the ground while trying to grab the Sakuradite bomb and pull it away from his chest._

 _"ZERO!" Kallen shouted as she attempted to intervene._

 _However, before Kallen could get any closer, Suzaku aimed the gun at her while maintaining his attention towards a downed Zero._

 _"It's just Lelouch. He's used the Japanese and Cephiro, he used you and Hikaru! You want to defend a man like that?!" Suzaku snapped as he successfully grabbed the Sakuradite bomb and hurled it into the rocks, never to be seen again._

 _After hearing what Suzaku just said, Kallen fled the area in disgrace while sobbing to herself. As for Lelouch, he gets knocked forward by Suzaku. Feeling defeated, Lelouch looked up at Suzaku, before grinning at him as his ex-friend makes one final statement._

 _"Zero, this is the end for you!" Suzaku said as he arrested Lelouch on the spot._

 _Just like that, Lelouch was restrained before Suzaku hauled him onto the Lancelot before making his way to Pendragon._

* * *

End of Flashback:

"And shortly afterwards, the Emperor has accepted my request to earn my place as a member of the Knights of the Round. Specifically, I'm now promoted as the Knight of Seven in the Britannian Empire!" Suzaku said as he finished his backstory in front of Hikaru.

"So, you joined the Knights of the Round after you captured Zero?!" Hikaru hissed. "Well, don't even think you're going to get away with this!"

"Why wouldn't I?!" Suzaku smirked. "You've already pushed your luck, Hikaru. As of now, it will be you guys who will pay the price for letting Zero deceive you all! Anyway, did you really think Lelouch would help you win back Japan and save Cephiro again?"

"If it hadn't been for Zero, the Cephirians wouldn't stand a chance against Britannia's armies, would they?!" Hikaru said sternly. "I'm sure he didn't mean to use his Geass on Euphy, even if he did try."

"Well get this: why would you be aiding a man who is just using you whether or not he uses his Geass on people like you?!" Suzaku asked in a serious tone.

Upon hearing what Suzaku was asking, Hikaru could not come up with any words to say in answering his question.

"You have already sealed your fate, young lady." Suzaku glared. "It was already decided that you and your Knight Eleven friends will be publicly executed on a burning stake. This kind of punishment was used on people that were accused for the crime of witchcraft!"

"You dare accuse us as witches?!" Hikaru snarled. "Cephiro is a land of will and magic. It's always been part of our nature in the New World."

"Well, not here!" Suzaku snapped. "Besides, your supernatural powers are just as frightening as Lelouch's Geass. We won't take any chances. After all, your magic gloves will be absorbed by our technology and added as part of Britannia's Military power and technology. Once we're done with you and those fools aiding you, they'll find a way to enter the New World once again. This time, the Knights of the Round will be leading Britannia's best troops against the Cephirian Alliance. As for you and the Magic Knights, you'll be nothing more than a distant memory. Also, we discovered data that you had power way beyond Cephiro's imagining. Then again, your infinite power as the Pillar of Cephiro will be ours to wield against the natives of the New World."

"You can't do that!" Hikaru growled in anger over what Suzaku is getting at.

"Sorry Hikaru, it's already done!" Suzaku said as he let Hikaru's cell. "We have your possessions secured and analyzed for future research."

Feeling lost, Hikaru grunted in anger as she sees Suzaku leave the prison hallways. When Hikaru turned around towards the window above her, she sees the moonlight shine down upon her. After looking towards the moon, Hikaru felt that this may be the end of the path that she choose to become a Magic Knight of the New World of Cephiro. Now that Suzaku found out about Zero's true colors and identity as Lelouch, Hikaru wasn't sure who to believe anymore, Zero deceiving her or Suzaku deceiving her. Either way, the Flame Knight may need to have a long talk with Lelouch about what Suzaku said about him. However, Hikaru may not get the chance because of her scheduled execution. After thinking about everything that she had done over the past several months before being captured, Hikaru felt drowsy after minutes of previous beatings and fell asleep while sitting down, with her arms restrained to her back while inside her straitjacket.

One month later at sunrise, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are being escorted out of their prison cells and are being hauled into the Pendragon Arena where they'll meet their fate. On their way from Temple Tower to the arena, the Magic Knights were getting pelted by all sorts of rotten fruit, rocks, and other debris by both Britannian citizens and nobles alike. While others started booing and calling them witches due to the fact that they have challenged the Holy Britannian Empire with so-called evil powers, even before rallying the natives of the New World to their cause. Deep within the angry crowd of Britannians, Mokona was following the Magic Knights unnoticed as if he was lurking in the shadows of a forest.

In the middle of their escort, Marrybell mel Britannia showed up to relieve the Prison guards only to escort the Knight Elevens to their execution grounds. Just like Cornelia, Marrybell is a Britannian Warrior Princess to is known to lead the Glinda Knights as their captain to rid the world of terrorism. She's always obsessed in destroying terrorists ever since her mother and younger sister were both killed in a bombing terrorist attack. In fact, Marrybell is seen to have a pink hair color and violet eyes. She is seen wearing a red, sleeveless pilot suit with gold linings. As she looked closely at Hikaru, she glared at her fiercely in anger.

"So, these female Elevens were the ones who intercepted Clovis' and Cornelia's forces during his campaign in the New World?!" Marrybell sneered in a hostile tone. "I don't know how you witch-like terrorists were able to do in my brother's and sister's forces but I'll assure you that no one messes with my family. Do you hear me?! NO ONE! Especially when you made my sister Cornelia, look like a total joke in front of her men! How do you plead for your crimes of witchcraft, young lady?!"

As Marrybell glared at Hikaru straight in the eye, the Flame Knight makes a fearless response.

"I don't feel guilty over what I had done. Besides, Cornelia and Clovis have brought all this upon themselves!" Hikaru retorted in undaunted tone. "After all, they both had it coming."

Upon hearing what Hikaru just said, Marrybell's eyes narrowed in anger as she smacked Hikaru across the face with full fury.

"Don't you dare look down on my family, you little fiend!" Marrybell shouted angrily at the Flame Knight. "It's bad enough that my mother and my sister got killed by terrorists. I heard about how you and your ilk kidnapped Euphy and Clovis, and how you took down my eldest sister, Princess Cornelia! Because of your terrorist acts against my family, you and your friends now stand at the brink of the abyss. Yet, even now it's not too late. You could still save yourself from your trial if you tell us where Princess Euphemia is."

In denying Marrybell's request, Hikaru spat at her face in return. Realizing that Hikaru doesn't want to have anything to do with Euphy anymore, Marrybell growled as she dragged the flame knight by the hair while making her way towards the main entrance of the Arena, along with the Glinda Knights escorting Umi and Fuu from behind.

As for Mokona, he zipped past the unsuspecting crowd of Britannians and made his way into a sewer grate leading to the arena.

Three hours later, the Britannian Nobles have all gathered at the bleachers to witness the execution of the Knight Elevens of the New World. As for Marrybell, she had her forces stationed at every corner of the Arena, just encase anyone tries to intervene with the execution of the Magic Knights. Marrybell had her Knightmare parked right next to the Royal booth, as she stood there watching as the executioner is about to burn the three Knight Elevens.

Marrybell's Knightmare happens to be known as the Lancelot Trial. Unlike Suzaku's Lancelot, it had red tungsten armor instead of white and is armed with a Jousting Lance, 2 MVS, and a Varis Rifle. When turning her attention towards the Emperor who is inside the Royal Booth, she sees Suzaku, Anya, and Gino, who were the Knights of Seven, Six, and Three, standing behind the Emperor while the execution went underway. Mikes and cameras are being stationed all around the stadium and are broadcasting the execution, so that everyone outside of Pendragon will be witnessing the event.

Just before the executioner is about to set Hikaru on fire, Mokona appeared at the edge of the arena while hiding underneath the shadows. Thinking quickly, the white rabbit burrowed itself into the sand as he made his way towards the burning pyres. As soon as the flames are about to consume Hikaru, Mokona shoots out a yellow beam and hit the flaming figure in the waist as he transferred her Magic glove inside Hikaru's straitjacket.

At first, Mokona didn't think that delivering Hikaru's magic glove to her is going to help reactivate her powers and save her from getting burned. However, in the next second, Hikaru was able to burst out of her straitjacket and struck at the executioner when he wasn't looking, much to the horror of Marrybell, Suzaku, Gino, and Anya. Before they knew it, the executioner was sent flying off the platform while set aflame and screamed in pain as the flames burned him to death. In the next minute, the flames have been extinguished Hikaru's body as she donned her Magic Knight armor once again.

As soon as Hikaru helped free Umi and Fuu from their straitjackets, Marrybell started shouting out orders to the Glinda Knights.

"HEY! THOSE DAMN ELEVENS ARE TRYING TO ESCAPE! STOP THEM!"

Just when the Glinda Knights, who were piloting their Glinda Sutherlands, aimed their guns at the Magic Knights, Emperor Charles stood up from his throne and gave out an order otherwise.

"Wait, let the Knight of Seven deal with them!"

Upon heeding the Emperor's orders, Suzaku jumped off the Royal Booth and drew out his Knightmare key. In one click, he summoned the Lancelot Conquista to fight by his side. At the same time, Hikaru drew out her sword and summoned Rayearth Alpha before engaging the Lancelot once again.

As Marrybell sees the other two Magic Knights disappear from sight, she issues out another order to her men.

"After those two!"

The moment Marrybell and her squad left the arena, Suzaku prepares to engage Hikaru once again. When Hikaru glared at the Lancelot while inside Rayearth Alpha, she raised her broadsword up to her left shoulder and she pointed the tip of its blade at the white knightmare. At the same time, Rayearth was sidestepping and circling around while paying close attention to the Lancelot as he did the same. Realizing that the execution isn't going as planned, the Emperor also gave out the order to cut off all mikes and cameras at the arena so that it doesn't cause a panic amongst the Britannians nor encourage the Elevens to start rebelling again.

After circling around and keeping a close eye on each other for a few more minutes, Suzaku asks Hikaru to clarify on her motives despite being executed for witchcraft.

"Are you sure this is what you really want, Hikaru?!" Suzaku said sternly from inside the Lancelot. "Even if you get past me and the Knights of the Round here, you still won't get very far because no one has ever escaped Pendragon and lived to tell the tale! There's a hundred soldiers and Knightmare pilots stationed everywhere even outside of the palace and the arena."

"Suzaku, we can never leave our friends or our family behind!" Hikaru smirked as she aimed her sword at the Lancelot. "We all have a will fight for what we believe in. But since your Princess is gone, what do you really believe in, after you captured Zero and condemned him to death?! Why continue fighting as a Knight of the Round after losing your loved ones when it is just going to be in vain?!"

"I told you, I'll still change the world from the inside; that's the only thing I would believe in right now!" Suzaku said sternly as he maintained his guard while circling around Rayearth.

"Still trying to push it are you?! Well in that case, I will defeat you by any means necessary!" Hikaru snarled as she is about to make her first move against Suzaku's Lancelot Conquista. "Let's do this, Knight of Seven!"

Without holding anything back, Rayearth's sword started charging up in a flaming aura before running towards where the Lancelot is standing. At the same time, Suzaku charged forward with the Lancelot as he attempted to lunge at Rayearth, with both of its MVS's preparing to strike at the Rune God from either side. As soon as they closed into each other, Rayearth slammed his sword on top of one of the Lancelot's MVS' first. In retaliation, the Lancelot made a spinning attack towards the Red Rune God Knightmare, making Hikaru do a back flip several meters away from Suzaku. The moment Lancelot Conquista charged forward, he made several fast horizontal strikes at Rayearth Alpha only to get blocked by his red shield. While defending herself with Rayearth's shield, Hikaru struggled underneath her breath to maintain her guard against the newly upgraded Lancelot.

After blocking the Lancelot's 17th strike with her shield, Hikaru hovered to the Lancelot's side, using Rayearth's flaming jets sprouting from his feet, and kicked the white Knightmare in the face with Rayearth's right foot only to get blocked by its Core Luminous shield. As Rayearth jumped backwards after disengaging with failing to kick the Lancelot in the face, the Red Rune God continued to attack the Lancelot with everything Hikaru has got.

Just when Rayearth got closer to the Lancelot again, the white knightmare jumped up to its right onto the empty bleachers and drove right behind Hikaru in hopes of delivering a death blow with the use of both of his MVS'. However, Hikaru lowered her flame, charged sword to her lower right and swung it to her upper left, creating a huge red arc aimed towards the Lancelot. In an instant, the Lancelot held both of its MVS as it stood its ground against the oncoming red arc. Upon impact, it created a blinding explosion that left Suzaku lose his visual on the target. Before he knew it, Rayearth appeared into the sky as it made his attempt to strike down upon the Lancelot from above.

"RRRAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!" Hikaru roared as she raised her sword up high above her head before slamming the blade on top of the Lancelot's core Luminous shield.

As the Rayearth's blade struck at Lancelot's shield, it made a huge crack on the green barrier. The next thing Suzaku knew was that the Lancelot was suddenly slammed straight into the ground head first due to the Rayearth's heavy sword strike. In an instant, Suzaku felt his cockpit shaking violently as he got flung back and forth, losing his concentration on his opponent.

"Why you...?!" Suzaku snarled as he pulled out the Lancelot's VARIS.

However, before he could aim the beam rifle at Rayearth, Hikaru kicked the gun right off the Lancelot's hand as it was sent flying out of the arena.

"I don't have time to deal with you right now, Suzaku!" Hikaru told the Knight of Seven. "I've got to back up Umi and Fuu while heading to Temple Tower! For now, just stay put!"

Before Suzaku could see what was going on, Hikaru raised her hand up high and casted another spell on the Lancelot. In less than a minute, Suzaku could see flashing red lights erupting from inside the cockpit as the Lancelot's limbs were bind by four huge, golden metal bands, restraining the white Knightmare while on its stomach. After Hikaru finished restraining the Lancelot with her powers, Hikaru quickly teleported herself away from the arena.

In anger Suzaku slammed his fist onto the control panel for not being able to neutralize and recapture the Knight of Fire in Pendragon.

Back at the Royal Booth, the Emperor could help but laugh over such amusement after Rayearth escaped when pinning down the Lancelot.

"It's just as I thought, those Eleven knights sure know how to fight really well in the New World. It's no wonder why the natives residing there had faith in them!" Emperor Charles cackled with delight. "But no matter, one day she will have to submit to the Empire, her and her friends. I still needed their aid to destroy the world where I'll be able to recreate it."

* * *

While the crowd of Britannian nobles are making their way out of the arena v.i.a exit, Anya and Gino activated their knightmare keys and brought forth the Mordred and the Tristram outside of the arena. They have been given orders by the Emperor to have their forces secure all of the exits while escorting the nobles out of harm's way.

Meanwhile, right after Mokona gave Umi and Fuu back their magic gloves, they donned their Magic Knight armor and summoned their Rune Gods, Selece Omega and Windam Delta, before making their way to back to the prison area to save what was left of their Cephirian comrades. In hot pursuit, Marrybell had her men, who were now piloting their Glinda Sutherlands, chased after the Knights of Wind and Water as they opened fire and drew out their hatchets from their holsters.

"They may have escaped execution, but do not be afraid!" Marrybell shouted at the top of her lungs while inside her Lancelot Trial. "Let us slay those witches for honor and glory of the Glinda Knights!"

Upon heeding Princess Marrybell's orders, three Sutherlands charged at the Rune God Knightmares with all their might. However, Fuu was able to ready herself as she took out her Eagle Longbow and fired a powerful Eagle arrow at her attackers. The three Sutherlands were all met with a huge shockwave that came from the eagle arrow, the moment it transformed into an eagle silhouette. As a result, the Sutherlands were sent flying 45 feet away from the Knight of Wind. As for the rest of the Glinda Knightmares, they continued to charged at the Magic Knights only for Umi to casted down another of her spells at them.

"OCEAN WYVERN!"

As Umi unleashed her tusk dragon-like water spell, two Sutherlands barely had enough time to evade it when the spell shoved both of them at a nearby building, knocking both of them out of commission. Moving on, the two Rune Gods made several dashes towards Temple Tower, slashing every Sutherland that tried to intervene. Every time a Sutherland attempts to open fire with its Assault Rifle, Fuu quickly fired an energy arrow from Windam's Eagle Longbow straight in their torso, killing its pilot and making it fall on its back, while Umi made powerful jabs with her Escudo rapier on her side. The Britannian Marines that were shooting at the Rune Gods with their SMGs were met by defeated Britannian Knightmares collapsing on top of them, crushing most of them in a bloody pulp. The two Magic Knights went on a violent rampage as they headed back to Temple Tower to rescue their comrades. However, Umi realized that they're being outnumbered without their Cephirian comrades fighting by their side. Furthermore, every time Umi and Fuu took down an enemy Sutherland, two more rise in its place. Before they knew it, the two Magic Knights get surrounded by a squad of 10 Sutherlands from all sides as they aimed their Assault Rifles at their Rune Gods.

"There's too many of them!" Umi shrieked. "We can't get any close to the Prison area."

"We have to push through Ms. Umi! No matter what!" Fuu told the Knight of Water. "If we don't free our friends and find a way out of here, we'll be done for!"

Somewhere above the Rune Gods, Marrybell's Lancelot is about to aim her VARIS at the two Rune Gods in hoping to kill to birds with one stone. However, just when she was about to fire at Selece and Windam, another energy arrow zoomed in, missing her Lancelot Trial by a mere inch of the Knightmare's face.

"What the hell?!" Marrybell gasped as if she was caught off guard by an unexpected interception.

As Marrybell turned around, she sees a huge blimp hovering above her. Before she knew it, the Green Ranger jumped off from the airship and landed on its two legs as it deployed its landspinners. It was Ferio of Cephiro. Behind him, the remains of Cephiro's army that weren't captured nor escaped back to the New World followed the Cephirian Prince as they deployed a squad of 25 customized, Gloucesters bearing Cephiro's Emblem. In the confusion, the Cephirian Gloucesters opened fire at the Britannian Sutherlands, making them scatter as they all head for cover away from their energy crossbow bolts.

"Ferio!" Fuu cried in relief.

"It seems that I'm not too late!" Ferio spoke from inside the Green Ranger. "Fuu, where are the others?!"

"The rest of our comrades are being held up in Temple Tower!" Fuu told Ferio.

"I'll be heading there now!" Ferio announced as he gave orders to his regiment. "Soldiers of Cephiro, follow me! Urabe, give us covering fire!"

"Yes, my lord!" The Cephirian soldiers said in unison from inside their Knightmares.

"Understood!" Urabe's voice spoke from Ferio's communication channel.

Upon heeding Ferio's orders, the Cephirian Gloucesters fought their way towards Temple Tower while Urabe and the Black Knight remnants gave out suppressing fire from above their position. However, Marrybell was able to see where the Cephirians and the Black Knights are heading at and immediately notified the Knights of Three and Six of what is happening.

"Gino! Anya!" Marrybell spoke as she activated their channels. "We've got enemy reinforcements heading to Temple Tower!"

"We're on our way!" Gino replied as he launched his Tristram up into the air.

As the Gino's Knightmare appeared in full view, the Tristram is revealed to be a transformable Knightmare with two huge golden horns protruding from its head, armed with two huge blue slash harkens mounted on its forearms and a polearm-like MVS that it attached from two MVS'. When the Tristram flew up into the air, it transformed into a jet-fighter like frame known as "Fortress Mode." Just when Tristram Fortress Mode flew 20 meters past the Green Ranger, it reconfigured itself into a humanoid knightmare as it drew out his MVS polearm. The moment it landed on the ground, Ferio barely had enough time to steer his Green Ranger backwards when the Tristram slammed his polearm directly onto the ground, a few feet from where the green Knightmare was standing.

"Where do you think you're going?" Gino smirked.

"Get out of my way, Britannian!" Ferio hissed as he aimed the Green Ranger's Bowgun at the Tristram.

As soon as the Green Ranger fired a powerful shot at Gino's Knightmare, the Knight of three reacted by letting loose both of its slash harkens only to clamp each other together. The next thing Ferio saw was that the two clamped Harkens fired a powerful blue hue energy blast that headed straight for him, much to the horror of the Prince of Cephiro. Before the energy blast got any closer to the Green Ranger, Fuu casted one of her wind spells to deflect Tristram's attack.

"Wings of Protection!"

In an instant, a huge wind-like barrier protected the Green Ranger from getting obliterated in a heartbeat. When Windam Delta appeared beside the Green Ranger, Fuu drew out her Eagle Long Bow and aimed it at Gino's Tristram up front.

"Ferio, go save our comrades!" Fuu told her boyfriend. "I'll hold them off here!"

"Thanks, Fuu!" Ferio acknowledged as he steered his Green Knightmare towards the direction leading to Temple Tower.

"Such a brave move for protecting a New World native from us, Eleven!" Gino complimented before getting serious. "But either way, you will not escape from us that easily!"

"There's always the first time for everything!" Umi shouted as she and Selece Omega appeared next to Windam Delta.

"Well, your overconfidence can be your undoing!" Anya retorted in an emotionless tone as she appeared with her Mordred.

Anya's Mordred is revealed to be a highly durable Knighmare with red, pink huge, bulky limbs and a white torso with a yellow line in the middle. It is equipped with an integrated float system, allowing the Mordred to fly in mid-air while in combat. Also, the Mordred is armed with a Stark Hadron Cannon that can be merged from two sets of Hadron Cannons mounted on each shoulder and a miniature proximity missile launcher. As the Mordred aimed its Stark Hadron Cannon at the two Rune Gods, Tristram raised out his hand in front of the red Knightmare.

"Anya, let's not try anything destructive here. Think about where we are!" Gino ordered the Knight of Six.

"You're no fun, Gino!" Anya said in disgust as she disengaged her Stark Hadron Cannon.

"Let's do this the long way!" Gino said as he readied his MVS Polearm before facing the Magic Knights head on. "We'll just have our forces go after the other intruders heading to Temple Tower!"

As Umi makes her first move, she attacks the Mordred with her rapier. However, despite Umi's best efforts, Anya activated the Mordred's Blaze Luminous shield in warding off the Knight of Water's attack. Umi wasn't done yet as she made several more quick thrusts and jabs with Selece's Rapier. Then again, the Mordred's shield stayed intact, rending the Knightmare undamaged. Feeling bored, Anya shook her head softly before grabbing Selece's sword arm with Mordred's left hand and twisted it with ease.

At the same time, Umi screamed in pain as she felt her sword hand twisting in the opposite direction, with bones cracking. Just like that, Umi ended up dropping her sword on the floor before getting on both of her knees while grabbing her sword arm with her other hand.

"AUUUGGGGGHHHHH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!" Umi cried in pain.

"Is that all you've got?!" Anya spoke omniously from inside the Mordred. "You foolish Elevens never learn, do you?!"

With just one click from Anya's remote, her Knightmare threw a punch at Selece's face, sending the blue Rune God flying backwards to next to where Fuu is standing.

"MS. UMI!" Fuu shrieked in panic as she drew out her Eagle Long Bow and aimed it at the Mordred.

Before Fuu could fire an arrow at the Mordred, however, Gino's Tristram rammed at Windam Delta, thrusting its polearm MVS at the Green Rune God. In a split second, Fuu held her ground against the charging Tristram, blocking the polearm with her Eagle Long Bow. In the impeding result, Fuu skidded backwards before both her and Gino stopped.

"It's like what my instructor said, always have your eyes maintained on your opponent!" Gino grinned as he lifted Windam's bow up high and kicked the Green Rune God in the torso.

Taking the full brunt from Tristram's physical attack, Windam staggered backwards as Fuu gritted her teeth while trying to ignore the pain coming from her stomach.

"You dirtbag!" Fuu growled as she drew out her Escudo Two-handed sword.

As Fuu held onto her sword with both of her hands, she charged at the Tristram with full force. Feeling confident in taking her down, Gino thrusted his polearm at the charging Windam Delta just to stop Fuu's blade from coming into contact with his Knightmare. Before Fuu could see what was coming, the Tristram turned the crescent blade of his polearm over her sword and flipped himself over to her left. In a split second, Gino slammed the shaft of his polearm in Fuu's lower abdomen so hard that she collapsed onto her knees as the Knight of Wind gasped for breath. The next thing Fuu did was that she started coughing up blood, making Gino stand tall and with triumph.

"Surrender, Knight of the New World!" Gino announced from inside his Tristram. "There is no escape from the wrath of the Knights of the Round!"

"I THINK NOT!" Hikaru shouted as she blasted her way from below the ground, several feet from where the Mordred and Tristram are standing. At the same time, a small fiery eruption occurred in front of Gino and Anya, nearly catching both of them off guard.

"So, the Little Fire witch from Area 11 finally shows up!" Gino taunted as he readied himself to do battle with the Knight of Fire. "Where's Suzaku by the way?!"

"He won't be bothering me for awhile!" Hikaru answered as she smirked at the Knight of Three's Knightmare. "Besides, I'll always do my best to keep both Umi and Fuu alive no matter what!"

"We'll just see about that, little lady!" Gino grinned as he turned towards the Mordred. "Anya, go get her! Now will be the time to shoot her down."

"With pleasure!" Anya said coldly as she brought out her targeting visors.

At the same time, the Mordred deployed its Stark Hadron Cannon and aimed it at Rayearth. Without making a sudden move, the Mordred's main weapon unleashed a massive hadron beam merged from four barrels all at once. As the combined beams headed straight for Rayearth, Hikaru activated an electrical forcefield from her red shield before the beams slammed into it. As the hadron beams continued to bear down on Rayearth's shield, Hikaru gritted her teeth while pushing herself forward as she slowly marched towards the Mordred.

As Umi and Fuu slowly got up after taking a beating from the Knights of Three and Six, they both see Hikaru protecting them with her electrical powered up barrier coming from her red shield. Sensing another opportunity, the Knights of Water and Wind drew out their swords and empowered them with the strength of their willpower, unnoticed due to the red, flashing beams being deflected by Rayearth's shield.

The moment Hikaru got 10 feet closer to the Mordred, Rayearth boosted his movement as jets of fire started sprouting from both of his ankles. In the middle to pressurizing Rayearth with her Stark Hadron Cannon, Anya noticed that Hikaru is getting closer and closer every single second. In a quick reaction, Anya unleashed a barrage of missiles at the Red Rune God only to be intercepted by Umi's Sapphire Whirlwind.

However, several other missiles were still closing in from Hikaru's both sides. Nevertheless, Fuu was able to cast her magic to ward off Mordred's remaining missiles.

"Wings of Protection!" Fuu shouted as she let loose a gust of wind that formed into a green barrier.

In a sudden reaction, Hikaru leaped up into the air, evading the Hadron beam just inches from her feet and slammed her sword right on top of the Mordred's core luminous shield. At first Anya didn't think Hikaru's blade is going to pierce her Knightmare's shield. However, Anya's eyes widened as she noticed that Hikaru's Escudo Broadsword made a huge crack onto the shield. The next thing Anya saw was that the blade is slowly puncturing the shield as if a knife was cutting up butter. Just when Anya made a small evasive maneuver to back away from the oncoming blade above the Mordred's head, Hikaru fired off a torrent of magic at the red, bulky Knightmare as it slammed into its torso. Even though the Mordred isn't receiving any cutting damage, Anya felt her cockpit rumbling horrendously as her knightmare is getting shoved away from Rayearth thanks to its powerful attack spewing out from his sword. At the same time when the Mordred received a undamaged concussion, the Mordred's Stark Hadron Cannon blew up as Rayearth's torrential attack split the main weapon in two, making it explode before it hit the ground.

Hikaru wasn't done yet as she charged straight at the Mordred and kicked it in the torso with his right foot. The moment Anya tried to retaliate by grabbing Rayearth with the Mordred's right hand, the Rune God dodged it and went up to its back. Before Anya could react, Rayearth slammed the back of her cockpit with his shield, stunning it in the process as it fell onto its knees with both of the Mordred's hands on the ground.

"You may be pretty tough for a Knight of the Round, but you're not as fast as I thought you were!" Umi retorted as she taunted Anya of her Knightmare.

"Lady Hikaru, we're able to rescue our comrades from Temple Tower!" Ferio announced from Hikaru's intercom. "We're preparing a hot extraction from Urabe's airship. Meet us at the rendezvous!"

"Understood, Ferio!" Hikaru replied as she held in intercom with her left hand. "Fuu, do it!"

The moment Gino took is about to strike at Hikaru with Tristram's polearm MVS, Fuu casted her spell to restrain his Knightmare before he got any closer to Rayearth Alpha.

"WINGS OF ADMONISHMENT!"

"Dammnit!" Gino grunted in frustration for losing control of his Knightmare after being bounded by Fuu's restraining spell. "I can't move!"

"As much as we want to take you all down for capturing our comrades, we don't have time to deal with you!" Hikaru told Gino as she raised her voice from inside her Rune God Knightmare. "There will be another time, anyway. After all, our war with Britannia is just the beginning! Farewell for now!"

As Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu have all regrouped, the Knight of Fire casted another spell that made a really huge flash in front of Tristram and the Mordred, making Anya and Gino cover their eyes with their hands to avoid getting blinded by its effects. The moment the flash disappeared, they see that all three of the Magic Knights vanished from their sight. At the same time, Fuu's spell over the Tristram wore off, allowing Gino to regain control of his Knightmare before checking up on Anya.

"Send word to Bismarck and the other Knights of the Round!" Gino ordered Anya. "We're going after the Magic Knights of the New World!"

"Understood." Anya replied before she made inner thoughts to herself. "That Hikaru is a lot more tougher than I thought she would be. But no matter, she will be ours!"


	3. Temple Tower Breakout

***Disclaimer: Since I haven't seen a full view of Temple Tower anywhere in the Code Geass episodes, despite General Bartley mentioning it in "Island of the Gods," I decided to use my imagination to explain a full view of it as I progress through this chapter. Enjoy reading it, CG and MKR fans.***

Temple Tower was seen as a Britannian Fortress that is used as a prison complex. The Fortress stretched out 12 acres across, housing more than a thousand prisoners within the premises. In the middle of the area, the main keep is stationed as a command center where they use it to carry out orders to the security teams stationed all over the fortress. It was located east of the palace in Pendragon. At the main gate, which is stationed at the fortress' right and is facing the arena 50 miles from there, a squad of five Sutherlands were stationed near a gate control booth, along with 10 security guards.

Just when a few of them are both to get their coffee from inside the booth, the guards heard an alarm go off. One of the guards spotted a destructive path heading their way. When a prison warden looked closely with his binoculars, he spotted a squad of Cephirian Knightmares go on a rampage, along with an backup of Black Knight Burais opening fire from above inside an airship. As soon as the security gate closed, the Sutherlands readied their weapons at the on-coming intruders.

"This is Security Officer Wallzer!" The Prison Warden spoke through the mike from inside the security booth. "We have a group of unidentified Knightmares heading towards the security gate! Requesting orders immediately!"

Wallzer happens to be a 6ft, 4 inches tall. He is seen wearing a blue, grey Britannian Military uniform and a grey-blue beret on top of his head. He happens to be a warden in charge of monitoring the security at the main gate, letting prisoners into the Temple Tower to await their imprisonment. Earlier when the Magic Knights and their comrades were captured about a year ago, most of the captured Cephirians were detained and sent to be locked up in the prison building on the left of the complex, along with Geo Metro and Zazu Torque. However, their prison sentence will soon end as Ferio and his group will storm their way into temple tower to save their Cephirian comrades.

While the Magic Knights kept the Knights of Six, Seven, and Three at bay, Ferio and his squad charged forward towards the gates of Temple Tower.

"I read you, Officer Wallzer. You have permission to fire at will." The voice spoke from Wallzer's mike.

"Yes sir!" Wallzer said, acknowledging his orders from his superiors. "Security, shoot down those intruders!"

Upon seeing the squad of Cephirian Knightmares heading towards them, the 5 prison security Sutherlands attempted to open fire with their Assault Rifles. However, in a split second, Kallen's Guren jumped out of Urabe's airship and plummeted top of the security booth, much to Wallzer's horror.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Wallzer shrieked as he sees the Guren from one of his main cameras.

In an instant, the Guren landed right on top of the security booth and with just two of its feet, the red Knightmare smashed the booth. In the impeding result, Wallzer screamed as the ceiling collapsed right on top of him, crushing him to death as the booth turned into rubble.

"WARDEN!" One of the Sutherland pilots shrieked as he sees his commanding officer get crushed underneath the Guren's feet.

Just when two Sutherlands are about to aim their guns at the Guren, Kallen's Knightmare jumped over a Sutherland on her right and grabbed its head with her Radium Claw at the same time. The moment the Guren landed on its feet, Kallen hurled the Sutherland 20 feet ahead from where she is standing, slamming the Britannian Knightmare into a wall before it gets knocked out. As for the Sutherland in front of Kallen, she steered her Guren towards the Britannian Knightmare and unleashed its radium waves before it exploded into nothingness.

"You're not shooting down any of my friends, you Britannian fools!" Kallen hissed as she tore away the main security gate with the Guren's Radium Claw.

The moment Kallen destroyed the gate, Ferio and his squad moved in and blasted their way into the main entrance of Temple Tower, with a few of them helping Kallen keep the garrison unit at bay.

"Hang on, Clef!" Ferio muttered inside the Green Ranger. "I'm going to get you out of there!"

Just when Ferio and his men moved to the prison complex building on their right, which is left of the security gate, the Black Knights jumped out of the airship and, by Kallen and Urabe's orders, they decided to hold the line at the security gate.

"Remember the plan, guys!" Kallen reminded her fellow Black Knights. "We have to buy Ferio and his men some time to help our allies escape Temple Tower!"

"Yes, Captain!" The Black Knights acknowledged in unison.

Deep within the prison complex, Ferio's Green Ranger bursted through the interior walls of a prison building on the left of the security gate. In less than 10 seconds, the Green Knightmare cuts down two more enemy Sutherlands with his huge Scimitar. Behind the Green Ranger, three Cephirian-customized Sutherlands armed with wrist-mounted crossbows and halberds followed the Cephirian Prince while storming through the prison complex building. As the prison guards and their Knightmares attempted to stop Ferio and his squad from storming in, the inmates jumped the gun from behind and beaten their captors to death. The inmates were hurling all sorts of objects at the guards while some of them were pinned down by their overwhelming numbers, beating them to death. As for the Britannian Sutherlands, the inmates grabbed several of the fallen guards' EMP grenades and hurled it at the knightmares.

When the grenades exploded in front of their feet, an electrical discharge spewed towards the Sutherlands as they fell on their torsos.

During the confusion, Clef, Lantis, Topaz, Geo, Ascot, and Zazu, who were still wearing their prison jumpsuits and were at prison mess hall before the chaos erupted, made a run for it as they grabbed whatever weapons they could find before making their way to the exit. However, it wasn't before one of the prison guards fending off the rioting crowd of inmates spotted the group trying to escape.

"We have a code red! I repeat, code red! Prisoners are escaping! Stop them!"

Just like that, a squad of Britannian guards disengaged dispersing the crowd and pursued the five escaping prisoners. In pursuing the prisoners, the guards opened fire upon them with their assault rifles. Fortunately, none of the bullets hit the Cephirians or Autozamians as they continued to keep running to find a way to escape from prison. In his mind, Clef was hoping to use the power of his magic staff to shield himself and his friends from enemy fire. However, since his staff and his Knightmare are confiscated and locked up in the Pendragon Hangar, Clef has no power to fight back. Instead, Geo and Zazu were shooting back with the assault rifles they just picked up from the fallen prison guards while covering for Clef, Lantis, Topaz, and Ascot. During the ensuring chase in the hallways of Temple Tower, the two Autozamians and the four Cephirians ran into a large recreation room on the same prison floor. The room had several exercise equipment, bench presses, and pool tables.

With no where else to run when the guards are hot on their trail, the two Autozamians took cover behind a wide, rectangular metal table that Geo toppled over before the guards opened fire from behind. As for Clef, Lantis, and Ascot, they took cover behind a pool table to avoid getting shot at. For Topaz, he jumped over the fallen table and hid next to Geo and Zazu. While hiding behind cover, all five prisoners kept their heads down. Unfortunately, the guards were getting close before recapturing the escaping inmates. Just when Geo and Zazu are about to return fire while taking cover, the ammo inside their Assault Rifles depleted in an instant, making both Autozamians sitting ducks.

But before the could recapture all five escaping prisoners, an explosion of rubble erupted from the prison walls, leaving behind a huge hole leading to the outside prison courtyard. Before they knew it, the rubble collapsed on top of the guards, crushing them all at once. After a few seconds of silence, Clef and his comrades came out of the hiding spots and saw the Green Ranger and the Guren appear before them.

"Ferio, what took you so long to find us?" Topaz asked impatiently.

"My apologies, commander!" Ferio's voice spoke from inside the Green Knightmare. "We were trying to track down the ship that hauled the lot of you all the way to Pendragon without getting caught!"

"Never mind that, Ferio!" Lantis told the Cephirian Prince. "We have to get out of here before more come after us!"

"I'll go cover your retreat!" Kallen spoke from inside her Guren.

In a less than a minute, Kallen steered her Guren towards the Courtyard and helped Urabe distract the Prison Security Sutherlands. As for the Green Ranger, he stood outside of the prison complex building, paving way for Urabe's Airship to appear above them. A ladder was deployed in front of their feet from the airship hovering 50 feet above them. Just like that, the six escapees climbed up to the airship one by one.

However, just when the airship is about to leave, with Urabe's Gekka in tow, they started getting shot at by the Glinda Knights from below, just outside of Temple Tower. Just as soon as the five escapees went inside the airship, Ferio engaged Marrybell and her squad with the aid of his remaining men piloting their Gloucesters.

"Do not let them escape!" Marrybell shouted from inside her Lancelot. "Shoot that enemy airship down!"

"Hey!" Ferio snarled as he charged straight at Marrybell's Lancelot with his Green Ranger. "Get away from them!"

In a split second, Marrybell's Lancelot jumped several feet backwards, nearly evading Ferio's Knightmare's sword by a foot.

"So, the Cephirian Prince decides to declare a challenge, huh?!" Marrybell sneered as her Lancelot drew out its MVS. "You won't get very far, you and your people! Those Knights of the Round will catch your ass!"

"We don't have time for this, Britannian!" Ferio hissed from inside his Green Knightmare. "We just want to go home!"

"TRY ME!" Marrybell shouted as she lunged at Ferio's Knightmare with hers.

As Marrybell's Lancelot jumped 25 feet above the Green Ranger, she made her first strike over Ferio's head. With limited time to dodge Marrybell's attack, Ferio raised his Scimitar up above his head with both of the Ranger's hands before feeling the pressure of her MVS. After putting pressure onto the Green Ranger, the Lancelot Trial jumped backwards in mid-air and fired its slash harkens at Ferio. Ferio steered his Green Ranger backwards, evading the Lancelot's harkens, before opening fire with its energy bow gun.

While the fight between Marrybell and Ferio went underway, Ferio's men moved underneath Urabe's airship while returning fire against the Glinda Sutherlands with their Gloucesters' wrist-mounted bolt casters. Unfortunately, Glinda Sutherlands were able to press forward without taking any damage from the Cephirian Gloucesters as they shot down several of them with their Assault Rifles. A few of the Cephirian Knightmares collapsed after getting shot at before the rest of the surviving squad made a shield formation while moving backwards towards the direction of the airship.

"Lord Ferio, we need backup!" One of the Cephirian pilots said in a panic from inside his Gloucester. "We can't hold them off much longer!"

Upon hearing the Cephirian's desperate cry for help, the moment Ferio clashed the Green Ranger's sword with the Lancelot Trial's MVS, the prince makes his response onto his intercom.

"Copy that! Get back onto the airship!" Ferio ordered his surviving men.

"Yes, your highness!" The Cephirian guard replied as he fired a slash harken at the airship's metal rims above him.

One by one, the Cephirian Gloucesters hoisted themselves up to the airship while they slowly break off their shield formation. As soon as the last Gloucester made his attempt to hoist himself up, the knightmare gets shot in the back of the cockpit by a Sutherland armed with a Giant Cannon, making him fall on its torso. Even though the last of his soldiers sacrificed himself to let the others escape, Ferio prayed to host a funeral to all of his fallen brothers once they make it out of Pendragon and back to the New World alive.

As soon as Ferio sees his surviving men reembark on Urabe's ship, he hurled a Chaos mine at Marrybell's Lancelot. In a split second, the mine spread like wildfire at the red Knightmare, forcing the Warrior Britannian Princess to withdraw while defending herself against the shrapnel with the Lancelot's energy shield. The moment she backed away, Marrybell regrouped with her squad before they held their ground by more of Ferio's Chaos Mines.

When Ferio turned towards the airship, he activates his intercom to let the Magic Knights now that their rescue mission is done.

"Lady Hikaru, we're able to rescue our comrades from Temple Tower!" Ferio spoke into his intercom. "We're preparing a hot extraction from Urabe's airship. Meet us at the rendezvous!"

"Understood, Ferio!" Hikaru's voice spoke from Ferio's intercom.

Right after Ferio shut off his intercom, he sees Marrybell's Lancelot fire its Harkens right above the Green Ranger from within the group of Glinda Sutherlands. Much to his horror, Ferio sees the red knightmare hoist pulled itself up and heading towards the airship. As the prince's eyes widened, Ferio fired several arrows from the Ranger's bow gun and shot off the Lancelot's arm that was using the harken. The moment the arrow struck the Lancelot's arm, it blew off from its limb making the Lancelot plummet straight to the ground.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Marrybell screamed as she started falling down from the sky along with her Knightmare. While Marrybell was screaming in terror, her Lancelot was waving its arms and legs frantically as if it's under a state of panic.

As soon as Marrybell's Lancelot crashed into the pavement, Ferio fired his Arrowhead Harkens from the Green Ranger's shoulder pads at the metal rims of Urabe's airship before hoisting himself up and away from the prison area. In just a minute, Ferio sees the buildings get smaller and smaller from where he landed his Knightmare. Ferio has now reembarked onto the airship before having Urabe set a course to the Pendragon Hangar.

"Good work, men!" Ferio said as he congratulating the Cephirian soldiers for their daring rescue mission at Temple Tower. "Let's meet up with the Magic Knights at the Hangar. We need to reclaim the NSX, and everything that was confiscated from our leaders at the Hangar."

"Yes, my lord!" The Cephirians said in unison.

While the airship made its way out of Temple Tower, the Guren and Urabe's Gekka followed it from below as they moved out of the prison area, leaving behind a huge smoke screen.

* * *

Back at the prison area, Marrybell's Knightmare is now seen in a collapsed state. The Lancelot is now lying on the ground with its torso on top of the concrete floor with only its left arm severed. The moment Marrybell came out of her cockpit, she cursed herself in frustration for two things:

One, they were not able to publicly execute the Magic Knights for their crimes against the Empire.

Two, their followers broke into Temple Tower and were able to help their comrades escape as they used several tricks to cover their retreat.

Just like that, Marrybell started screaming her head off that she wasn't able to take down any of those terrorists in one day. Despite their efforts of trying to placate their squad leader, Marrybell glared at them as if she wanted them to mind their own business. Feeling scared, the Glinda Knights backed away from her before Marrybell turned to face the airship above her.

"Someday, Cephirian! Someday, I'll give you the 'what-for'! You and those three wretched Knight Eleven witches! All of you!" Marrybell shouted in anger as she raised her fist in front of her face. "I HATE TERRORISTS!"

After taking a few deep breaths, Marrybell ordered her men to help the wounded and call-in some service crews to fix the damages done in Temple Tower. As for Marrybell, she received a call from Prince Schneizel for a debriefing back at the Palace.

* * *

While enroute to the Pendragon Hangar, Urabe's men activated a core luminous shield surrounding his airship. It was thanks to Rakshata's work that they're able to build a small luminous shield generator from inside the ship after she fled Area 11 along with Diethard. The moment Clef, Topaz, Geo, Zazu, Ferio, and Lantis went inside the airship, they were greeted by C.C, Urabe, and Kallen in the crew's mess hall.

However, Lantis and Clef are still concerned over the safety of the Magic Knights because they're still out there.

"There won't be anything to worry about, Sir Lantis." C.C said in a calm state. "You already know that those Knights wouldn't go down that easily."

"I know!" Lantis grunted. "I'm still concerned over Hikaru's safety since I've gotten very closer to her than ever before."

"Well, you already confessed your love on her behalf." C.C continued. "Anyway, once we drop you off at the hangar, we'll buy you some time to have that Autozamian Battleship up and running. But try not to have Geo take too long, we don't know how long we'll hold them off for. Once we leave Pendragon, you guys will be on your own from here on out."

"I understand!" Clef acknowledged.

"And by the way, we're able to recover all of your possessions from the storage room back at Temple Tower," Urabe informed. "They'll be in the locker room."

"Thanks, Urabe!" Topaz replied.

As Urabe and Kallen ordered their men to stand by, the Cephirians and Autozamians went inside the living quarters to recover after so many long months of torture in Temple Tower. While they washed off all of the dried bloodstains off their skin, they went to the locker rooms to replace their prison jumpsuits with a new set of clothes. Clef is now wearing a formal, light blue mage uniform with purple linings. Just when Clef finished dressing himself up, he managed to retrieve his mage staff from inside the locker.

As for Geo and Zazu, they were able to dress up in camo beige and green uniforms before recovering their Autozamian gear.

Topaz is now seen wearing a light-blue shirt with dark black pants before reclaiming his armor and sword from his locker.

For Lantis and Ascot, they were able to get their old clothes back, along with Lantis' black armor. The moment Ascot put his big, black hat back on his head, he recovered his magic, summoning glove.

Shortly after Clef geared up, he went to the bridge to go over what happened over the past year while he and his friends were incarcerated at Temple Tower.

"How did you guys escape when the Knights of the Round bagged us up?" Clef asked Urabe.

"It wasn't the smartest thing to do, but we have to find ways to survive when our Black Rebellion went up in smoke! The rest of my men, who weren't fighting, fell back with me along with a few squads of Cephirian Knightmares lead by Ferio," Urabe explained briefly while Ferio glared at him. "The point is, I still doubt Zero would ever abandons us back there."

"Well, what you guys going to do, once you get Zero back?" Lantis asked as he appeared at the doorway behind Urabe and Clef.

"I need to have a good long talk with him!" Kallen said sternly. "Or should I say Lelouch vi Britannia!"

"Wait, how did you know it was Lelouch?" Clef gasped in shock.

"I was a witness, Clef." Kallen continued. "But from what Suzaku was elaborating, before he captured Zero, if he really did used his Geass on me, I don't think I can trust him anymore!"

"Lelouch has Geass?" Lantis and Clef both said in unison.

"I know its hard to believe, but legend has it that Geass is an ancient supernatural power that has been bestowed upon by the Gods!" Kallen said grimly. "Very few have claimed this power. I still don't know what kind of Geass Zero possesses, but we really need to be very careful around him. We still haven't understood his true motives yet and the kind of Geass he has right now."

"I understand!" Lantis acknowledged.

"Captain Kouzki! We've made contact with the Magic Knights, they'll be meeting us at the Pendragon Hangar!" One of the Black Knights reported.

"Do we have their equipment with us?" Clef asked Urabe.

"Yep! They're all inside a huge crate that we'll be taking to the NSX once we reclaim that ship!" Urabe explained.

"Count us in!" Geo grinned as he cracked his knuckles. "I hope we won't see that wretched Prince Clovis again. Otherwise, I'll strangle that douchebag into next week!"

"Tell the Magic Knights that we'll be on our way!" Kallen ordered the Black Knights.

"Yes, ma'am!" One of the Black Knights acknowledged as he opened up a communication channel to make contact with the Magic Knights.

"Lady Hikaru, we're heading towards your position at the Pendragon Hangar. Do not engage until we arrive!" Kallen told the Fire Knight as she activated her personal communicator.

"Understood, Kallen!" Hikaru's voice spoke through the Black Knight Ace's communicator.

As Lantis turned to face the bridge, he can only pray that Hikaru and the Magic Knights would make it to the hangar in one piece.


	4. Finally leaving Pendragon

Somewhere in the city outside of the Pendragon palace, several squads of Britannian Sutherlands were dispatched in hoping they would find the escaping convicts and recapture them. Unfortunately, the Sutherlands aren't able to find them as the Magic Knights were lurking in the shadows of the city slums. After several minutes, the Sutherlands moved on only for the Magic Knights, grabbed some cloaks from a nearby basket lying in the streets and put them on over their prison jumpsuits. While under their disguises, the girls went out of the slums and attempted to reach the hangar where they'll be meeting up with the rest of their comrades.

Earlier, right after Hikaru teleported herself and her friends away from the Knights of Six and Three, she and the Magic Knights reappeared in a nearby alleyway, outside of the palace walkways, and disembarked from their Rune Gods. The moment the Rune Gods disappeared, their essences were immediately absorbed into the girls' magic gloves. It was for the best since they have to make their way towards the hangar in silence. Soon afterwards, they were given orders from Kallen on their communicators to rezendevous with the rest of their comrades and allies at the Pendragon Hangar. Now that Britannia is hot on their trail, the Magic Knights need to make their way out of the city without getting caught. Just before they're able to move on, two small familiar creatures popped out of the sewer manhole. Much to their shock, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu almost yelped in fright after seeing the two covered up in nasty stuff.

Ultimately, the trio covered their mouths just to avoid screaming and drawing the wrong kind of attention. In just a few seconds, the two little creatures shook the gunk off their skin. In an instant, Hikaru was the first to notice the creatures that appeared before her. It was Mokona and Primera. Before Hikaru had a chance to say anything, the little fairy glared at the white fluffball.

"Mokona! Primera! Where have you two been?" Hikaru asked in a whisper.

"I barely made it out of that wretched prison, no thanks to this imbecilic white furball!" Primera growled. "It was when the alarms went off that all of the cells opened up at prison. Without hesitation, I was able to fly away from that wretched place before they could even catch me again! I wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for Mokona!"

"Pu! Pu! Pu!" Mokona snickered.

"You think this is funny, huh?!" Primera glared at Mokona as she hovered a few feet above him. "Just be grateful that I'm not that..."

"Guys, we have to be quiet!" Fuu told the group. "We may have escaped our execution. But we're still in enemy territory. No, we're still inside the enemy capital! We can't stop for anything. Not until we safely get onboard the Battleship NSX!"

"Fuu's right!" Umi whispered. "We have to keep moving! Clef and the others are waiting for us at the rally point."

Without saying another word, Hikaru grabbed Mokona and hid him underneath her cloak before putting her hood over her head. As for Primera, she flew up and casted an invisibility spell on herself to avoid detection. As for Umi and Fuu, they put on their hoods before following Hikaru through the city streets. Everywhere they go, they see several patrol squads walking on foot, with one or two Knightmares accompanying them.

Somewhere in the distance, between the Magic Knights and the Pendragon Hangar, Sir Bradley and his Valkyrie Team are scouring the city to hunt down the escapees.

"There's no where to hide Eleven!" Bradley's voice echoed from inside the Perceival, who is hovering above a few buildings. "If you come out right now and surrender peacefully, we will spare you."

After a few minutes of silence, Bradley ordered his Valkyrie Team to spread out in two groups while tracking down the escapees. As for the Vampire of Britannia, he steered his Knightmare above a nearby dome and landed on top of it before surveying the surroundings below him.

Meanwhile, Hikaru was navigating as she whispered to Mokona to pull out a small version of the map. As Hikaru looked closely at the map, she sees that the trio is several blocks south away from the Pendragon Hangar. Undaunted, the Magic Knights hid beneath the shadows while avoid drawing out their swords or their magic. Just before they reached their first block, while putting their backs behind the alley walls, they spotted three Britannian Marines standing guard in front of a communication booth. Inside the booth, a Britannian Officer is talking indistinctly on the phone.

As a lightbulb lit up above her head, Hikaru came up with a risky idea.

"Girls, can you help me draw the guards away?" Hikaru whispered to Umi and Fuu.

The moment the two Knights nodded, they both came out of the alleyway and split up, while Mokona and Primera hid themselves underneath their invisibility spell. In just a few minutes, the guards stared hearing some clanking noises. Without thinking, the two guards went in to investigate the noise in the alleyway. But the only response they got is a good whack in the back of their heads. Behind them, Umi and Fuu took out metal pipes from underneath their cloaks and knocked both of the guards with ease. Before they could get up, the guards were met with stabs in the neck, killing them both in a heartbeat. As for the third guard, he turned around to check on the officer, unaware that Hikaru sneaked up behind him. In an instant, she took out a glass shard and stabbed the guard in the neck while holding him by the mouth to keep him silent. As they dragged the bodies down to the dark alleyways, they immediate took off their inmate jumpsuits and their cloaks, and disguised themselves as Britannian Marines, wearing their uniforms and helmets as disguises before arming themselves with their assault rifles. As soon as they're done, they went up to the communication booth just after the officer finished talking on the phone. The moment the officer came out of his booth, he immediately issued orders to his squad mates, unaware that the Magic Knights are in disguise.

"Marines, I've been given orders to have you all relocated to the Pendragon Hangar. Let's move it."

Without saying another word, the Eleven disguised Marines followed the officer from behind as they made their way to the hangar. As soon as their reached the hangar, they went to a checkpoint before presenting themselves in front of the security warden. After passing inspection over the officer's badge, the warden opened the security gate before moving on.

Just when they reached the door leading to the hangar, the officer approached the door. In front of him, there is a DNA scanner next to the door that is used to open it. Seeing the opportunity to strike, Hikaru, who is still disguised as a Britannian marine, turned towards Umi, giving her the word as she made a silent nod at the Knight of Water. As soon as Umi approached the officer from behind, she silently pulled out her rapier from her glove, which was concealed inside the marine glove, and impaled the officer from the back of his head with the blade coming out of his mouth. Instead of a deathly scream, the officer made a deathly gurgle before collapsing onto his knees and slumped on the ground lifeless.

After Umi pulled the rapier away from the officer's head, she grabbed his hand and placed it on top of the DNA scanner. As soon as the DNA recognized the dead officer's hand, the door opens up. Just when the three knights disguised as Marines entered the hangar, they left behind the officer's body in a storage container on their right.

In the hangar, they see a huge area that is as wide as an arena. Next, they see cranes unmounted and stationed across from each other, workers loading and unloading crates into several Britannian Ships, and security guards and Knightmares stationed in front of the NSX, which is secured in the middle of the hangar. In front of the NSX are two huge doors meant to open up whenever the ships are preparing to launch. The moment the Magic Knights see the NSX on sight, the Autozamian Crewmen were rounded up with their legs and hands bounded while sitting on the floor outside of their ship. In front of them, a squad of ten Britannian Marines and 2 Sutherlands keeping a close eye on Autozamians as they stood guard, with their assault rifles aimed at them. Behind the NSX, a control booth is stationed. Inside, a group of Britannian security personnel were on guard as they continued to monitor the interior of the Hangar. Underneath the booth, a group of inactive Knightmares are inside a huge pen surrounded by chain-linked barriers. It was the Knightmares belonging to Clef, Lantis, Topaz, and Ascot. In the middle of the group of Knightmares is the GTO. Right after the Cephirians and the Autozamians are taken prison, the Britannians have impounded most of their Knightmares and Mechs inside the hangar right where the Battleship NSX is.

Seen that the Autozamians are still being held hostage, the Magic Knights hid behind a set of crates, not wanting to draw in any attention from the Britannians. In silence, Hikaru makes a report to Kallen with her communicator.

"Kallen, we're inside the Hangar!" Hikaru whispered through her communicator. "But they're still holding the NSX crew hostage! What should we do?"

"Hold your position, I'll be coming down from above the Hangar, along with Ferio!" Kallen's voice replied.

After turning off her communicator, Hikaru turns towards Umi and Fuu, who are still wearing Britannian Marine uniforms as disguises, before asking for their verdict.

"Do you guys have any other plans?" Hikaru asked the two Magic Knights under disguise.

"I might try to shut down the power from the control room," Fuu told Hikaru as she point her finger at the small building facing the NSX and towards the gateway. "If the lights go out, you and Ms. Umi will move in a strike fast before freeing the prisoners. Once we set them free, we'll escort them to the NSX and hold our ground outside of the Hangar while they start the ship for departure."

"What about Kallen?" Hikaru asked. "She and her men will be dropping in very soon."

"We might as well let her back us up!" Umi informed the red-haired knight.

"Let's head to the control booth first, then me and Umi will move in from behind. Just as soon as Kallen arrives, then we'll strike at their captors and their Knightmares all at once." Hikaru said, clarifying their plan. "We can only get one shot at this. So, let's not screw this up!"

"You got it, Ms. Hikaru!" Fuu said as the girls head up to the control booth in silence.

As they make their way to the control room, the Magic Knights walked towards it in silence, not wanting to draw the wrong kind of attention. Along the way, they see engineers operating several loading machines. Hikaru prompted her friends not to do anymore silent killing until they reach their destination. So, they hid behind several boxes before the engineers move away, unaware of the Magic Knights' presence. Eager to sneak past the engineers and the guards, the Magic Knights moved swiftly in lighter steps. Hopefully, the security does hear their coming. After the engineers, accompanied by a few guards, disappeared into a another room, across from where the Magic Knights are, the girls managed to head up the stairs and into the control room, while still under the guise of Britannian Marine uniforms.

As Umi slowly opened the door, she sees one technician working on the controls, with three guards standing behind him. The moment Umi went inside the control room first, she hid behind a file cabinet that's in front of the door. Next Fuu went in, and then Hikaru. The moment Hikaru slowly closed the door behind her, Umi turned off the lights inside the control room, startling the technician. Before the confused guards had any chance to react, they were suddenly knocked out from behind by Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu with the butts of their assault rifles. When the guards were knocked out cold, the technician turned around only to see three assault rifles aimed at his face.

Hikaru was the first to take off her helmet, revealing herself as she grabbed the technician by the neck before he even had the chance to activate the alarm button.

"Touch that button, and I'll blast your head off!" Hikaru snarled as she held the frightened Britannian hostage. "Umi, tie these guys up!"

Upon hearing what Hikaru said, Umi opened up one of the file cabinets and took out several long pieces of rope before tying all four Britannians by their wrists up to the railings in front of the control panel, with their mouths gagged with grey scotch tape. The moment Mokona and Primera appeared, disengaging their invisibility spell once again, the little fairy grabbed one of the guns and pointed it at their captors.

"If you ruffians try anything funny, I'll shoot you myself!" Primera growled as she lowered herself down and aimed the gun at the restrained Britannians.

As soon as Fuu readied herself at the control panel, Hikaru gave the Knight of Wind her communicator before sneaking back out of the control room and hid behind several containers with Umi, close to the unaware Britannian Guards and the NSX crew. The moment Fuu sees her two friends in her sights, Umi and Hikaru readied themselves as they drew out their swords from underneath their magic gloves.

"Ms. Kallen, we're in position and are getting ready to open up the hangar doors!" Fuu spoke silently through the communicator.

"Affirmative!" Kallen's voice replied. "As soon as my men come in, free the prisoners and their Knightmares!"

"Understood!" Fuu acknowledged.

Without hesitation, Fuu pressed on the button used to open up the hangar doors. As the doors slowly opened, an alarm started ringing out loud. The moment the guards turned around, away from their captors, they spotted the Guren and Urabe's Gekka storm into the hangar and ripped right through a squad of 5 enemy Sutherlands, turning them all into rubble in an instant. Before the guards had a chance to fire at the two Knightmares, Hikaru and Umi came out of their hiding place, tore off their helmets, and struck down the guards with their swords, stabbing and slicing them in the backs.

Outside of the Hangar, Urabe's airship is seen hovering in front of the open hangar doors as several Black Knight infantry, descended into the floor where the NSX is. As they charged forward, the Black Knights opened fire at the Britannian Marines. Feeling outgunned and confused, the remaining Britannian Marines fell back and disappeared into the corridors before trying to call for backup. Noticing that they won't have any time to spare, Hikaru and Umi helped the Black Knights unrestrained the Autozamian crew and the Cephirian soldiers while Fuu, Mokona, and Primera came out of the control booth before proceeding onto the NSX. Lantis, Geo, Clef, Ascot, and Topaz appeared from the Urabe's airship, along with Ferio's Green Ranger and his remaining soldier, and went in to secure and reclaim their Knightmares, their weapons, and the GTO.

"Now that we got our ship and your weapons back, let's skedaddle; run quickly, before more Britannians show up!" Ferio ordered everyone as he steered his Green Ranger towards the NSX.

Without saying another word, the Cephirians and Autozamians went back onboard the NSX through its loading docks. However, another explosion erupted from underneath the control booth, leaving behind a huge hole. Much to Ferio's horror, the Cephirian Prince spotted the Mordred enter the hangar as Anya aimed the Quad Hadron Cannon at the NSX.

The moment the Mordred's main weapon fired, Clef's Archwizard unleashed an electrical barrier shield with its staff as the Hadron beams dissipated.

"No one leaves Pendragon alive!" Anya's voice spoke slyly from inside the Mordred.

"What a stubborn, little lady!" Ascot gasped as he spotted the bulky red Knightmare from inside his Monolith. "Griffore, Insectoid keep Anya busy!"

As the Monolith raised both of its radium claws up towards the Mordred, they opened up two portals as the two anthro beasts appeared and lurched at the Knight of Six. The moment the two creatures struck at the Mordred, Anya activated another core luminous shield, blocking their fists as the impact let loose several electrical sparks, hitting the floor in a violent effect.

The moment the last Knightmare, Cephirian, and Autozamian went onboard the NSX, the GTO provided covering fire for the Monolith. For Zazu, who is now onboard the NSX and at the bridge, he ordered the crew members to prep the ship for takeoff immediately.

"Ascot, get to the NSX now!" Geo ordered the Palu Summoner as the GTO fired a barrage of shots at the Mordred.

The moment Ascot steered his Monolith towards the NSX, the ship started its engines. As for the Magic Knights, they summoned their Rune Gods once again before securing the NSX's escape route. However, as soon as Hikaru looked outside of the hangar, she spotted a small fleet of 8 Britannian ships closing in on their position.

"Geo, Britannian ships are in the way!" Hikaru shouted as Geo, who is still engaging the Mordred.

"Zazu, prepare to fire the Laguna Cannons!" Geo ordered while speaking through his communicator.

Upon heading Geo's orders, Zazu passed it down to the Autozamian gun crew. In less than a minute, the NSX charged up its main weapon before aiming it at the Britannian fleet.

"Laguna Cannons, armed and ready to fire!" One of the Autozamian engineers acknowledged.

"FIRE!" Geo shouted at the top of his lungs.

In a few seconds, the NSX shot out two massive beams that both converged before striking into the heart of the Britannian fleet. With a blink of an eye, all of the ships exploded in an instant before they fell from the sky. After the ships went down, the NSX departures from the hangar as the Magic Knights' Rune Gods gave the ship a personal escort out of Pendragon. Before Anya could continue her pursuit, she received a private channel from Prince Schiezel.

"Lady Anya! I told you and your men not to reengage the escapees!" The 2nd Prince spoke from the channel in a stern tone of voice. "You and I need to have a long talk. Now, get back to base right this instant, young lady!"

Feeling rather emotionless for what she just did, Anya reluctantly turned her Mordred towards the Pendragon Palace before leaving the area, but not before making her statement behind her back.

"Don't push your luck, Geo Metro! I'll get you next time; you and your friends!"

After the Mordred disappeared into the blue sky, the GTO flew back to the NSX and embarked into its loading bay, along with the other Cephirian Knightmares.

As for the Perceival, before he had a chance to engage the NSX, he received orders to withdraw from the Hangar for a debriefing, much to the Vampire of Britannia's confusion. Grunting in disappointment, Bradley disengaged from his patrol and ordered the Valkyrie team to regroup with him at Pendragon.

"Curses, just when I was about to intercept their escape, they just had to recall me back to base!?" Bradley muttered to himself. "Well, don't get to cocky Elevens and Cephirians. We will still find you out there!"

When the NSX left the hangar, the Magic Knights' Rune Gods landed on top of its exterior hull. On their left, they see Urabe's Airship take flight moving forward away from the Pendragon Hangar as well. As Hikaru looked closely at Urabe's Airship, she sees Kallen's Guren standing on top facing towards where the Fire Knight is standing at.

"Thanks for your help, Kallen!" Hikaru said, congratulating the Black Knights Ace pilot. "We probably wouldn't be able to escape if it weren't for you!"

"It was nothing." Kallen's voice responded. "My men will be heading back to Area 11 to rescue Zero! I hope we see each other again! For now, just stay away from Britannia."

"You have our word, Kallen!" Hikaru replied as she see the Guren and Urabe's airship disappear towards the east.

As soon as Urabe's airship went its separate ways, the Magic Knights disembark from their Rune Gods and went inside the NSX for some well-deserved rest and relaxation. After the three Magic Knights discarded the Briannian Marine uniforms, they went to the crew's quarters to take a shower. In just a few minutes of cleaning themselves up of all the dried bloodstains in the showers, a Autozamian steward gave them some clothes to wear in the locker room. Once Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu left the showers they had towels wrapped up around their chests, not wanting to expose any of their bare skin, before heading to the locker rooms.

After dressing themselves, Hikaru is now seen wearing a red tank-top, black jeans, a pony-tail tied behind her red hair with a small, pink ribbon, a two small, ruby earrings hanging below both of her ears. As Hikaru looked down at her locker, she was able to recover Lantis' pendant after it was taken away from her during her imprisonment in Temple Tower. Umi appeared next and is now wearing a blue tube-top, showing a bit of her modest curves from her chest, and a medium-sized cerulean skirt; for her accessories, she has a white necklace with a small, blue diamond encased in gold around her neck and was able to keep her old blue band on top of her head. Lastly, for Fuu, the Knight of Wind is seen wearing a long, green sleeveless sundress with thin straps hanging over her smooth, bare shoulders and its length reaching down only a few inches above her ankles. On her waist, Fuu has a yellow sash wrapped around her and a green wrist band strapped to her left hand. Of course, they moment the Magic Knights put on their Magic gloves, they retained their white combat armor and shoulder pads and are now wearing white, combat boots, instead of white shoes that they once wore over the past two adventures in Cephiro.

The moment Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are ready, they head down to the NSX bridge to see where will they go after escaping the Capital of Britannia. At the bridge, they see Clef, Geo, and Zazu at the helm as the Autozamian Commander was giving out orders to the crewmen operating at their stations. The moment the Magic Knights approached the bridge, with Mokona and Primera following from behind, Hikaru was the first to follow-up on what they're going to do next.

"So Clef, what is our next mission?" Hikaru asked.

"Well, when they captured the NSX and impounded it in Pendragon, we lost a bit of power to activate the Sakuradite Hyperspace Gateway!" Geo informed Hikaru. "It's going to be awhile before we can power the generator up. But we need to find a safe place to hold our fort somewhere in the desert. The Britannians may still try to recapture us before we even had the chance to reopen the gateway back to Cephiro."

"What about Ms. Hikaru's powers, wasn't she able to open up the gateway too?" Fuu asked.

"Sorry Fuu, I still need to regain my energy into my emblem first before I can do it." Hikaru said in denial as she held Lantis' pendant around her neck. "When I did it to help Euphy escape, I almost drained my stamina. And since we received all sorts of beatings at Temple Tower almost every single day before we got away, Clef told me that I can't tap into my power yet until I completely recover from my old injuries."

"So that means..." Umi muttered in shock before Clef finished her sentence.

"Hikaru still hasn't recovered her strength yet. She may have been able to get us out of here when the fire triggered her adrenaline at the execution grounds, but that was just temporary energy." Clef explained further. "It was right after we all got onboard the NSX that Hikaru's adrenaline finally wore out."

"Then that means we still aren't out of Britannia's reach yet. We just escaped their Capital city. Our war with Britannia is just the beginning!" Fuu concluded.

"Exactly!" Clef acknowledged. "For now, we have to stay alive until we can really escape enemy territory."

"Helmsman, full speed ahead!" Geo ordered the Autozamian crew member. "We are to get as far away as possible while recharging the Sakuradite Generator."

"Yes sir!" The Autozamian Helmsman replied as he activated the NSX's thrusters to a maximum.

In less than a minute, the NSX powered up its engines and zoomed straight into clear, blue sky.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Pendragon hangar, Prince Schniezel ordered his subordinates to deal with the damage control that just occurred in the area. As for the Knights of the Round, they all appeared behind the 2nd Prince of Britannian in silence. After spending a few minutes of surveying the loading docks inside the hangar, the prince sees the medic teams haul off all the wounded and dead Britannians, secure all of the damaged, wrecked Knightmares, and released all of the hostages from the control room.

Feeling nonchalant about the situation inside the Hangar, Schniezel turned towards the open bay doors leading to the outside of Pendragon. The moment he saw a small glimpse of Rayearth and the NSX leave a distance away, the prince couldn't help but chuckle a bit as if he was just testing Hikaru and her friends while Suzaku came up next to him. Apart from Schniezel, the Honorary Britannian and Knight of Seven felt bit guilty for not being able to stop his former childhood friend from escaping.

"Farewell, Lady Hikaru!" Schneizel chuckled. "We'll meet again someday! For now, enjoy your Cephirian Crusade while it lasts."


	5. Pursued while Escaping

Meanwhile back at Pendragon...

After several weeks of trying to repair the damages at the Execution Arena, Marrybell is inside her room feeling totally distraught after failing to recapture Hikaru and her allies. In the midst of her negative behavior, she started drinking beer while sitting in front of her desk and staring out the window from the Pendragon Palace. Below her, Marrybell sees emergency crews trying to put out the fires, secured the damaged or destroyed Knightmares seen on the city streets, and recover the wounded or dead soldiers at the Pendragon Arena.

In just a few minutes of staring at the scenery from the window of her bedroom, Marrybell started growling as she threw her beer mug into the fire place before it shattered into a million pieces. In a raging fit, Marrybell started shouting at herself over her recent failures.

"This is the WORST! I can't believe that Knight Eleven whore was able to withstand the fire that was supposed to burn her alive before she escaped execution. What's worse is that her comrades intercepted us before we even had the chance to recapture the Magic Knights. Before I even knew it, one of the Cephirians shot down my Knightmare from the sky before I could even bring down their airship, leaving the Lancelot Trial completely crippled of its movement after it plunged into the ground. As a result, I had to wait for a month before I could operate my Knightmare again because there is a lot of repairs that needs to be done on the other Britannian Knightmares that were wrecked during the raid. CHRIST! CAN'T ONE THING GO RIGHT?!"

Before Marrybell had the chance to say anymore, Cornelia li Britannia appeared from outside of the doorway. The moment the Witch of Britannia came in, she spoke up right behind Marrybell in joining the conversation with her younger half-sister.

"Hey, you're not the only one who has underestimated such long shots from old adversaries in Area 11."

"What do you mean, sis?!" Marrybell turned around, feeling a bit intoxicated after drinking half a pint of beer before throwing it away.

"I actually misjudged Hikaru eight years ago!" Cornelia explained further. "I thought for sure that as a lowly, damned Eleven, she can't really do anything to me. Well, whatever they taught her in the New World, I was in complete shock not even realizing how much surprises she actually had up in her sleeves."

"You knew Hikaru would actually rebel against us in the later years?!" Marrybell shouted, still feeling drunk.

"It was during the time that the so-called Magic Knights appeared in the New World and laid waste to Viletta's men. When I finally learned that Hikaru is actually one of them, I thought she'd be a lot more older. If it hadn't been for Guilford, Euphy, and Schneizel, I would've met my end when she almost had me captured on the day that I tried to escape. I didn't want to believe that little spitfire would plot her own rebellion against the Empire because of two things, one: she doesn't have any proof that determines her citizenry in the New World, two: she had no power to do anything after we took away her rights."

"Let me guess, she proved you all of that wrong?!" Marrybell retorted.

"They did say that she and her two Eleven friends have already saved the New World from destruction earlier. Because of that, they were able to rally an army of their own, similar to that of the Black Knights, except that they're all foreign natives."

Before Marrybell is able to say anymore to Cornelia, her laptop started beeping on her desk. As soon as Marrybell walked up to it and examined her laptop, she sees an email appear from the lower corner of the screen. The moment she opened up the window containing the email message, Marrybell started reading the message which was sent by Prince Clovis.

"Marrybell, my dear. You will be sent to pursue the Magic Knights and their followers before they make it back to the New World. We still have yet to recover the Sakuradite Generator that was meant to open a portal to the other world since we never had time trying to dismantle it from the Battleship NSX. You'll be escorted by the Glinda Knights, Sir Bradley, Bismarck, and Nonette Enneagram. If you're not able to stop them before getting to the New World, there will be a second chance and no more. You will also be given an another assignment to go rescue Princess Euphemia from the New World and bring her back safely to Pendragon and eliminate anyone who dares get in the way."

"Understood, dear brother." Marrybell replied, with Cornelia standing right next to her.

"I leave all of this in your hands!" Cornelia added in, just when Marrybell turned around to face her elder sister.

"What are you going to do?!" Marrybell asked the second princess of Britannia.

"I still have to find answers on why would Euphy gave out the massacre upon Hikaru's people in Mt. Fuji!" Cornelia said, giving out a brief answer to her half-sister. "I mean, I wanted to squeeze information out of that fiery Eleven witch after she kidnapped our sister but Schneizel is suspecting that there are other dark forces that led to Euphy's drastic behavior. I may need to help Schneizel investigate Euphy's case first before I can help you rescue her from Hikaru."

"I see. Well, good luck then." Marrybell told Cornelia before leaving her room.

The moment Cornelia disappeared into the hallways outside of Marrybell's room, the Leader of the Glinda Knights disrobed her sleepwear before Marrybell went in to take a shower, just to cleanse herself from all of the stress that happened weeks ago. After letting the water caress her bare body for a few minutes, Marrybell wrapped herself in a towel and went up to the mirror. As she looked at herself, Marrybell's Geass appeared in her right eye.

"Just you wait, Hikaru Shidou!" Marrybell said to herself in a sly tone of voice. "Even if you did leave Pendragon and this world, I wouldn't be too comfortable if I were you. I'll still find you and bring you to justice, you and the rest of the Cephirian scum!"

* * *

After a few weeks of voyaging outside of Pendragon, the NSX is struggling to stay cloaked as they slowly tried to make their way through the mountains and deserts at in the far east of the Britannian Capital. Unfortunately, the food stocks are running low and the fuel to power up the NSX is dwindling to a minimum. With no other option, Geo ordered the crewmen to land the NSX at the river where several huge mountains surrounded it, so that they wouldn't get spotted by any Britannian aircraft.

As soon as the NSX safely landed on top of a wide rocky area, covering 1,500 feet in width, Clef casted an invisibility spell over the area like a huge dome while Geo is struggling to make contact back in Cephiro with his communication radios. Earlier a while back before heading into the world of the Magic Knights, Geo remembered that some of his men stayed behind in Cephiro in bolstering up the castle's defenses. At the same time, they help provide resources from Autozam to develop and enhance the Knightmares Frames for the newly Cephirian warrior recruits to use in battle. In fact, Geo was able to keep a roster of who was off-board the NSX during that time. About 30 Autozamian crew members stayed behind to perform most of those duties back in Cephiro.

Ferio made several hunting expeditions with the aid of a few Autozamian snipers. So far, they only came back with several slain cattle used for meat. For the Magic Knights, they went down to several nearby villages to steal some fruits and veggies bring back to their makeshift base. Even though Fuu and Umi protested that stealing is wrong, Hikaru suggested otherwise because they're hundreds of miles away from their fallen country. So, they secretly made underground tunnels that lead from the NSX to the villages that they were looting just to avoid being followed back, thanks to the aid of Ascot's pet beasts. It may be tiring work that took most of the day, but the Magic Knights, the Cephirians, and the Autozamians are still able to pull through because they do not want to give up in finding their way back to the world that they came from. In fact, the Autozamians were trying everyday to restore power to the Sakuradite Generator to the fullest.

In just four days later while surviving out in the wilderness, they eventually decided to eat dinner outside of the NSX. While they set up base outside, they had tents placed on top of a rocky platform a few feet above the NSX, with several Cephirian guards and Autozamian Marines staying on guard through 12-hour shifts, switching places around every two hours. Between them and the NSX, they setup a bridge that leads to the entrance of the battleship. Right now, they made a bonfire in the middle of their campsite before they started having dinner. Their dinner consists of the meat that was from the cattle and the produce that they stole over the past four days. After they had dinner, Geo stands up in front of the crowd before making his announcement.

"Okay everyone, listen up! I was able to make contact with Lt. Commander Zulruch. He said that as soon as we opened up the gateway back to the New World, he and his Mecha squad will arrive to cover our escape. Since our Sakuradite Generator is finally fixed, we'll be starting our evacuating operation in 0900 hours tomorrow morning."

"That's good to hear, Mr. Geo." Fuu said, feeling a bit relieved. "But we still need to find our way back to Area 11. I'm sure our parents are still worried sick about us since we Magic Knights got captured during the Black Rebellion."

"Well, we still have a long way ahead of us, Fuu. Besides, I'd rather use the gateway as a shortcut to Area 11, than risk traveling through the desert when the enemy is hot on our trail." Geo replied in a anxious tone. "In other words, we've been hanging around in your world for too long."

"My thoughts exactly." Ferio said feeling a bit shaken. "It's just like what those Glaston knights said: we were just pushing our luck."

"Also, some of us still need to stay on guard throughout the night in case any of the Britannian forces are getting close to our position." Geo suggested to Ferio.

"I'll do it!" Lantis said as he stood up in front of Geo.

"Are you sure Mr. Lantis?" Fuu asked.

"I'm afraid you girls need a lot more rest just in case we get attacked again." Lantis continued. "Besides, I'll still be right where Hikaru will be sleeping at."

"Thanks, Lantis," Hikaru said as she smiled a bit towards the Magic Swordsman.

As Lantis turned towards Hikaru, she made a small blush on her face before looking up at the night sky. For the others, Geo went back inside the ship to monitor the surveillance in the area surrounding them. After Topaz disposed of the wasted food, Clef dumped a bucket full of water to put out the bonfire. For Ferio, he went to sleep inside his tent, which was stationed next to the Green Ranger Knightmare.

"I hope your parents aren't too worried about what happened when you and your friends got taken away to Pendragon." Lantis told Hikaru as he sit right beside her.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about them," Hikaru gasped in silence.

As she took out her cellphone, Hikaru was hoping that she can get a good reception before calling her brothers, telling them that she's alright. Although she was able to recover her cellphone after escaping Pendragon thanks to Mokona, Hikaru noticed that her phone's reception is weak. Therefore, Hikaru may not be able to make contact with her parents or her brothers.

"Man, the signal is still weak here," Hikaru said, feeling a bit down. "It may be a lot harder to stay in contact with my brothers, than rather how Geo is able to make contact back in Cephiro."

* * *

Meanwhile back in the Area 11...

After hearing the shocking news of their daughters getting captured by Britannia after the Black Rebellion, the Shidous, the Ryuuzakis, and the Houojis couldn't help but feel very worried about their fate. As time went on, they were begging to seek answers on what they're doing to Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu at Pendragon. Unfortunately, they were denied of any information about it went they went to the newspaper stands. Feeling lost, all three families of the Magic Knights eventually gave up, assuming that the girls are all dead to them.

However, after living in despair for one year, they all felt relieved that all of their daughters have ultimately escaped from Pendragon with the aid of the Black Knights. It was when Satoru Shidou retrieved the latest headlines from a news stand in the Shinjuku Getto. The headlines explained that Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu escaped execution at Pendragon, which took place several days ago. After reading the headlines, Umi's parents, Fuu's parents, and Hikaru's brothers are both happy and anxious to see them again. In fact, they're still worried that the Magic Knights may get recaptured after hearing that Marrybell and the Knights of the Round started pursuing them outside of Pendragon. Nevertheless, the families of the Magic Knights decided to pray that they'll be able to come back home safe and sound.

* * *

A few miles outside of Pendragon, Marrybell and her Glinda Knights strike team ventured out into the desert while pursuing the fugitives on land. As for the Knights of the Round, Bismarck, Bradley, Monica, Suzaku, and Gino flew 50 feet above Marrybell's Knightmare while navigating in the air with their Knightmares. Behind the Knights of the Round, three Britannian Battleships were escorting them in unison, all armed with cannons and core luminous shields.

While Marrybell was steering her Lancelot Trial through the desert the Britannian Princess was trembling in anger as she held her firm grip onto the levers inside her cockpit. Before she could say anything to herself, another knightmare walked up besides her Lancelot. It happens to be known as the Lancelot Grail. As it made its appearance, the Lancelot Grail is armed with 12 Schrötter Steel Swords mounted inside its cape, two wrist-mounted sword brazers, 2 slash harkens, and 6 back-mounted sword harkens. Just like the Lancelot Trial, the Grail version has a bright red tungsten, sakuradite armor with gold eupalets and wide linings. As Marrybell turned to face the Lancelot Grail, she immediately announces the name of the pilot steering the red Knightmare Frame.

"Oldrin, do you known who we're dealing with right now?"

"I know you're still upset that the execution back at Pendragon didn't go accordingly, but you still need to be patient. We can still beat those Magic Knight Ladies with my help!" Oldrin Zevorn suggested as her voice is heard from inside the Lancelot Grail. "We can't stop them if you let your anger get the best out of them, especially when your sister got abducted by them."

"I can't help it. Ever since I learn that she-devil Hikaru or whatever her name was kidnapped Euphy, I will not rest until I see that ungrateful Eleven whore's head on my desk!" Marrybell hissed.

"Rest assured Marrybell, I'll take care of her!" Oldrin continued. "I can't help but wonder why Cornelia didn't take that girl as her personal slave when she had the chance."

"Let's not dwell on the past anymore," Bismarck's voice spoke out from the intercoms inside the Lancelot Grail's cockpit. "We may have made many big mistakes in Area 11, though it is never too late to undo them. We just need to play it smart first."

"Okay," Marrybell said as she took a deep breath before pulling out the map interface inside her Knightmare cockpit. "Our scouts told us that the Battleship NSX is last seen heading towards the mountains in the east before it disappeared. But once we arrive at the mountains, make no mistake. They can't hide forever; they're out there!"

"Yes milady!" The Glinda Knights all said in unison.

* * *

At the crack of dawn, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu were the first to wake up early in the morning before the rest of them. The moment the girls went out of their tents, they put on their cloaks to hide their identities before making their way to the nearby village. At the village, they see houses closed with no lights turned on from the inside. It could only mean that most of the villagers are still sleeping. Seeing an opportunity, the Magic Knights made their way to a nearby tavern to gather information on what has ever become of Area 11 now after the Black Rebellion.

The moment they reached the tavern, it was already open for the bartender is just starting his dayshift at the bar counter. As the Magic Knights head inside, they see various groups of people playing cards, drinking beer, throwing darts, and sitting around looking at them maliciously as they held their knives and handguns close to themselves. Before heading towards the bar counter, Fuu was the first to look around cautiously making sure that there are no Britannian spies lurking amongst the crowd of bartenders and patrons.

After surveying the bar for a few minutes, the Magic Knights walked towards the bar counter. The moment all three girls sat down, Fuu calmly asked the bartender up front.

"Hello there, little lady," The bartender greeted as he made his appearance in front of the Knight of Wind, who is still wearing her cloak.

When the bartender approached Fuu, he was seen as a tall, brown-haired man dressed in a brown apron and white casual wear. He had glasses on his face and a short beard below his nose. Before Fuu could say anything, the bartender just finished wiping down a glass mug with a clean, white rag before putting it on the counter behind him.

"What can I do for you?!" The bartender asked.

"Do you know any rumors going on back at Area 11? Or any news that we should be aware of?" Fuu said in a whisper tone of voice, hoping to avoid getting any attention from the other bar patrons behind her.

"In Area 11, they said that Zero was presumed to be dead after the Black Knights were defeated," The bartender responded. "Rumor has it that the Black Knights have all been but destroyed after Zero was captured and executed. For the people that ended the Black Knights' reign of terror, Suzaku Kururugi was promoted as the Knight of Seven, the newest member of the Britannia's Knights of the Round."

The moment she heard it from the bartender, Hikaru felt a small chill crawling up her spine. Ever since she learned all of this from Suzaku, during the time that she was imprisoned at Pendragon, Hikaru has lost all hope of reasoning with her former friend Suzaku Kururugi. In her mind, Hikaru probably made a mistake in helping him defeat the Chinese Federation at the Fukuoka Base. Maybe she should've stop him before Suzaku was able to corner Zero. Even though she can't dwell on the past anymore, Hikaru needs to try harder to put Suzaku down immediately because she fear that the more she keeps holding back her fight against the Knight of Seven, the more worse Suzaku is going to get.

"Well, I did hear in the current headlines that there was a breakout at Pendragon. They said that a large group of insurgents have raided Temple Tower and made it off with a group of prisoners. After that, they hijacked a battleship at the Pendragon hangar before making their escape." The Bartender continued. "I also heard that Marrybell and her men are being dispatched from Pendragon to hunt down the escaped fugitives, along with the aid of the Knights of the Round."

Upon hearing what the bartender just said, Hikaru felt a bit shaken that the Empire will be onto her and her friends again. As soon as Umi noticed Hikaru shivering a bit, she patted on the red-haired girl's shoulder, whispering to her that everything will be alright once we leave enemy territory for good. Just when the bartender finished his speech with Fuu, the wind knight was able to hand him a bag of coins to keep his conversation with her silent.

Meanwhile somewhere in the village, Odrin and two of the Glinda Knights, who all disembarked from their Knightmares, decided to do some searching around the village. As they made their way through the village square, Odrin was holding a wanted poster of Hikaru in her right hand. Along the way to the marketplace, Odrin posted Hikaru's wanted poster next to a fruit stand.

While looking around, the salesperson spotted Odrin after selling a bag of apples to one of his customers.

"Hello there. Can I help you?"

The moment Oldrin turned around, she went up to the salesperson before answering his question.

"I'm looking for a group of fugitives that recently escaped Pendragon!" Odrin replied as she showed Hikaru's wanted poster in front of the salesperson. "Have you seen this woman?"

"I did see a glimpse of red-hair from a woman dressed in a cloak. She and two other cloaked figures headed towards Desert Camel Bar." The salesman replied.

"Was anyone else following them?" Oldrin asked further.

"No, it was just those three!" The salesperson continued.

The moment turned towards the two Glinda Knights, Odrin signaled them to investigate the Desert Camel Bar. Upon responding to Odrin's hand waves, the Glinda Knights entered the bar to look for the cloaked figures. However, after several minutes passed, both of Marrybell's Knights came out. As soon as they approached Odrin, one of them shook their head.

"What?! They weren't in there?!" Oldrin gasped in confusion.

"Well, that was the last time I saw them!" The Salesperson assumed.

"Sorry for wasting your time, sir!" Oldrin apologized to the salesperson before moving on.

* * *

Earlier, in just 10 minutes before the Glinda Knights entered the bar that the cloaked Magic Knights are in, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu, are able to buy a few newspapers revolving around the current events in Area 11 from an newspaper vendor next to the women's restroom; Fuu suggested this idea so that they'll be able to show the others more information about their former homeland.

However, Umi saw a glimpse of the Glinda Knights heading towards the entrance of the bar, much to her horror. Thinking quickly, Hikaru was able to lead her two friends out of the bar through a trapdoor in between the news stand and the restroom. As soon as they opened up the trapdoor, all three of the Magic Knights went inside only to find themselves inside a tunnel leading to the village's canals. After Fuu closed the trapdoor, they all made their way towards a nearby manhole. However, before any of the Magic Knights are able to open up the manhole, Umi takes out a small mirror before lifting the lid above a half a foot off the ground. As soon as Umi used her mirror to observe her surroundings, she spotted Marrybell and her men hanging out at a nearby outdoor, restaurant

"We have a problem guys!" Umi announced as she slowly closed the lid above her. "Those Brits are right above us. They might recognize us as soon as we head back out in the streets. What do we do?"

"Didn't Mr. Geo handed out some decoy grenades before letting us head to the village?" Fuu asked Umi. "He expects us to use them just incase the enemy gets to close to us, yet still unaware of our presence."

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about that. Hikaru do you have them in your cloak?" Umi exclaimed as she turned towards the Knight of Fire.

"Yep!" Hikaru responded, with a smirk on her face as she took out a decoy grenade from underneath her cloak.

Back above the surface, Marrybell finally finished her breakfast with Bismarck and Anya as Gino went up to the counter to pay the receptionist for their meals. For the other Glaston Knights, they stood on guard outside of the restaurant as they kept their eyes open for any suspicious people.

"Say, are you sure its a good idea to have Odrin and a small scouting party to survey this huge village?" Gino said, showing concern for Marrybell's fellow Glinda Knights.

"Gino, she is my second-in-command of my squad. So, there won't be anything to worry about." Marrybell replied as she makes her way out of the restaurant. "If I ever bring those Knight Elevens in, I would gain another new pride as Britannia's famous witch hunter!"

"That's some wild imagination you've got there!" Bismarck snickered. "Trying to live in the medieval age are we?!"

"Though, I can't help but wonder why isn't Suzaku joining us in recapturing the wanted fugitives that escaped Pendragon?" Marrybell continued.

"Prince Schniezel still has some assignments for Kururugi back at Area 11." Gino explained. "We'll meet up with him shortly once we grab those lady Knight Elevens red-handed."

"Also, I do have a backup plan that will prevent Cephiro's Alliance from returning to Area 11, if Hikaru and her comrades escape back into the New World!" Bismarck grinned. "Everything will all fall into place just as soon as the time is right."

"I hope we'll succeed where Princess Cornelia didn't!" Anya pondered. "Otherwise, our reputation as Knights of the Round will be tarnished. You guys should've seen the look on Prince Schnizel's face when I went to meet up with him. He gave me a fair warning that I will be demoted if I fire the Hadron Cannon at a Britannian-owned building again."

"That's what happens if you get too reckless with the Mordred," Gino snickered.

Before anyone could say anymore, a loud bang erupted from outside of the restaurant, startling Marrybell as she was the first to run outside to investigate the noise.

"What the hell was that?" Bismarck said in confusion.

"There's only one way to find out!" Gino exclaimed. "Let's go!"

The moment Marrybell, Gino, Bismarck, and Anya went outside of the restaurant, they see loud, crackling noises on their right. In the ensuing chaos, the noise came from the marketplace as people and food stand owners started fleeing for their lives in a panic. As soon as Marrybell and the Knights of the Round drew out their swords, they went in to investigate the source of the noise.

While seeing the Britannians distracted by one of their decoy grenades, Umi became the first to emerge from the manhole and immediately grabbed Fuu and then Hikaru up from underground tunnels. Just when they're about to make a run for it, Umi accidentally knocked over a stack of suitcases from a nearby vendor only to get the attention of Oldrin.

"HALT!" Oldrin shouted as she ordered her men to go after the Magic Knights while bringing up her communicator. "This Odrin! We've got some suspicious runners! Need immediate backup!"

"Ms. Umi!" Fuu grunted in annoyance as she tried next to Hikaru.

In the ensuing chase, Oldrin fired several shots from her handgun in trying to stop the cloaked figures from running. After shooting 5 bullets at one of the runners, the cloak got ripped off, revealing herself in front of Marrybell's friend. After taking a good look at the runaway, Oldrin gasped in shock due to the fact that she has one of the fugitives in her sight.

"Marrybell, this is Oldrin!" Oldrin shouted through her communicator. "I found one of the fugitives!"

"Take her down immediately!" Marrybell's voice commanded.

As soon as Oldrin aimed her gun at Hikaru, the flame knight hurled her flame arrow at Oldrin's firearm, blowing it up into pieces.

"AGGGH!" Oldrin screamed as she held her hand, in which almost got burned her Hikaru's magic. "Why you..."

In a rage, Oldrin drew out her sword and charged straight at Hikaru with all her might. The moment she was about to strike down on the Knight of Fire, Hikaru quickly drew out her sword and held her ground against Oldrin.

"Hikaru!" Umi shrieked. But before Umi could draw out her sword, Fuu stopped her by the wrist.

"She'll catch up with us later, Ms. Umi!" Fuu told the blue-haired knight. "Right now we still need to lose them, they're still chasing after us!"

As Umi and Fuu moved on ahead, Umi looked back over her shoulder only to see Hikaru being forced to engage Oldrin in a sword fight.

 _"You better not die on me, Hikaru or I'm going to kill you!"_ Umi thought to herself before running out of the marketplace with Fuu.

While on the run, Fuu takes out her communicator to make contact with Geo Metro.

"Mr. Geo, the enemy is onto us and Ms. Hikaru is holding them off to buy us time to escape. We need an immediate extract, ASAP!" Fuu shouted while holding the communicator up to her face.

" _I'm on my way, Fuu!"_ Geo said as his voice spoke from Fuu's communicator.

Back the area where Hikaru is engaging Oldrin, the Flame Knight is struggling to hold her ground against the Britannian female warrior as she continued to make several more sword strikes on her. After Oldrin stopped for a moment, Hikaru made a decent counter-attack on the Britannian knight. Just before Hikaru's sword reached her lower, left abdomen, Oldrin held her sword with both of her hands and barely made a block before redirecting it to her right. After that, Oldrin shoved Hikaru away from her with a thrust kick in the chest, making the Flame Knight stagger backwards. Before Hikaru was about to reengage with Oldrin, Marrybell showed up behind her second-in-command and drew out her sword.

"This nonsense really needs to stop, young lady!" Marrybell snarled. "If you hand over Euphy back to us, we will not pursue you any further and will pardon you of all the crimes that you committed in Area 11!"

"I'm not going to hand Euphy back yet. Not until, we can guarantee that the Japanese will not pursue her out of revenge!" Hikaru replied in defiance. "I never really want to exile Euphy in the first place. But it was only thing I can do to spare my people from their anger due to her deceit."

"Well, whatever reason you had to capture Euphy, I'm not falling for your excuses!" Marrybell hissed. "It's either her or your execution! Which one will it be?!"

"Your elder brother is still trying to investigate Euphy's case a bit further; he told me about it too while I was still onboard his ship back then!" Hikaru continued while trying to keep her guard up.

"You expect me to believe that?!" Marrybell glared at the Flame Knight as she pointed her sword at Hikaru.

"I'll only hand Euphy back, if the time is right!" Hikaru concluded. "For now, JUST LEAVE US ALONE!"

Before Marrybell had the chance to approach Hikaru any further, the GTO came down from the sky and slammed onto the dirt, with its right knee touching the ground in front of her, while dust and wind started flowing at Marrybell and Oldrin. In a split second, the two female Britannian warriors covered their eyes with their arms in not wanting to get dust in their faces.

"Time to go, Hikaru!" Geo's voice spoke from inside the GTO.

Without hesitation, Hikaru jumped on top of the GTO's right shoulder pad before holding on. The moment Marrybell and Oldrin lowered their arms from their faces, just when the dust settled, they see the Green Mecha fly straight back up into the sky and flew past the two Britannians.

"Damn! They got away again!" Oldrin said in frustration.

"Dispatch the Glinda Knightmare unit!" Marrybell ordered Oldrin as she recalled her Lancelot with her remote device. "We'll follow after them!"

The moment Marrybell's Lancelot appeared before her, the Britannian Princess immediately went inside her Knightmare and pursue the GTO.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the mountainside where the NSX is hiding at, the GTO and Hikaru landed softly on top of the battelship as the Autozamian Commander activated his communicator from the inside of the green mecha's cockpit.

"Attention everyone, a Britannian Battleforce has been sighted at a nearby village several hundred miles south of our concealed position! We have to pack up everything and take off ASAP!"

Upon hearing Geo's orders, the Autozamians and Zazu were the first to respond as they woke up their Cephirian allies from their sleep. The moment the Cephirians got up, Ascot summoned his pet beasts to help Geo and Zazu load up the cargo onboard the NSX. As for the Cephirians, some of them drove their Gloucesters into the NSX's hangar while the rest of them put out the fires and dispose any wasted resources into the dirt. For the Magic Knights, they went into their Rune Gods and, upon Geo's and Clef's request, they went on a lookout for any Britannian activity heading their way.

"Zazu, is the Sakuradite Generator ready for activation?" Geo asked the mechanic through his communicator.

"Everything is ready, sir!" Zazu' voice spoke in Geo's ear.

"We'll be departing in ETA three minutes!" Geo told Clef.

"Copy that, Geo!" Clef replied before turning towards Ferio. "Ferio, have your men standby at the hangar of the NSX!"

"Understood, Master Mage!" Ferio acknowledged as he steered his Green Ranger into the battleship hangar.

As the Magic Knights continued to survey the area 1,500 above the NSX, Hikaru spotted Marrybell's force pressing forward through the desert behind one of the mountains while hovering in mid-air with her Rune God.

"Clef! It's the Britannian forces! They're coming through the desert and heading closer to the mountains!" Hikaru told the Master Mage as she and Rayearth landed on top of the NSX.

"Hikaru, I have an idea!" Clef said as he went inside his Archwizard Knightmare.

* * *

While the Britannian Knightmares are moving forward from the desert and heading towards the mountains up ahead, Marrybell's Knightmare is standing on top of a G-1 mobile fortress. On her left, the Glinda Knights are escorting the G-1 base through the desert. In several hundreds meters closer to the mountains, Marrybell issues more orders to her men.

"Oldrin, is the Canterbury unit ready?" Marrybell's voice spoke from inside the Lancelot Trial.

"They're standing by to fire, ma'am!" Oldrin said as she stood in front of Marrybell's Knightmare.

"I know their ship is somewhere in that mountain region up ahead. They can't hide forever. So, once the NSX takes to the skies again, the Cantebury unit will shoot it down. Then, we move in and squash any survivors that emerge from their wrecked battleship." Marrybell said as she announced her plan with Oldrin.

"My lady! A huge sandstorm is heading our way!" One of the Glinda Knights spoke from inside a Sutherland Glinda.

"WHAT?" Marrybell shrieked as she sees the sandstorm reach up to the sky about 1,000 meters above her and the G-1 Base. "Why this so soon? There's hardly any wind up here!"

Before Marrybell was able to give out orders to the G-1 Base or any of her fellow Glinda Knights, the sandstorm turned into a blazing tsunami that is about the engulf the 88th Britannian Princess and her entire battalion with one big gulp.

"HOLY SHIT!" Marrybell screamed in terror as she steered her Knightmare right behind the G-1 Base and jumped off the mobile fortress before taking cover behind it. "Everyone take cover!"

Upon hearing Marrybell's immediate orders, the Glinda Knightmares fell flat on their tungsten as they tried to shield themselves from the blazing sandstorm with their arms while in a prone stance. As the sandstorm begins to engulf the Britannian Army, the burning sand hardly did any damage on the Knightmare's Tungsten armor. However, several of them slowly lose their ground as they were sent flying backwards. In addition, the Knightmares that were getting blown away started to combust into a burning wreck while the pilots started screaming as they get burned alive inside their cockpits.

As for Marrybell and Oldrin, they activated their Core Luminous shields from both the Lancelot Trial and the Gloucester Glinda to defend themselves against the blazing sandstorm. While holding up, Marrybell issues out new orders to the Canterbury unit.

"Activate the Luminous Dome Shields around the Canterbury Unit! We can't let this sandstorm cripple them."

Upon hearing Marrybell's orders, a unit of four Canterburys formed a dome-like shield wall to withstand the blazing sandstorm. They were seen in the back of Marrybell's G-1 base, along with three squads of Glinda Sutherlands. While the Canterburys are holding their defensive shields up, the Sutherlands formed a shield wall with their towershields, in hopes of resisting the damage caused by the fiery sandstorm.

" _Just what kind trickery is this?"_ Marrybell thought to herself about the unpredictable sandstorm engulfing her entire Glinda Knights battalion.

* * *

Early before Marrybell's forces came any closer to the mountains, in which Hikaru and her comrades are hiding at, Clef requested aid from the Knight of Fire to create a blazing sandstorm to keep them at bay. As Clef's Archwizard landed on its two feet on the desert, Rayearth appeared right next to him. Without moving with its landspinners, Clef slammed the Archwizard's staff onto the dirt and as soon as the staff's tip lit up, a wave of gust and sand started rising up in front of the wizard-like Knightmare and Rayearth. Before Hikaru could see what was the Master Mage doing while commandeering his Knightmare, the Archwizard lifted its staff off the ground and aimed it at the desert tsunami before moving it towards Marrybell's forces.

"Hikaru, time to use you magic!" Clef ordered the Knight of Fire.

Upon seeing what Clef is doing right now, Hikaru lit up her hand, which is Rayearth's hand, into a ball of flames and unleashed a beam of fire from behind the sandstorm. The moment her magic made contact with the flowing sandstorm, Hikaru's eyes widened with surprise as she sees it turn into a massive tsunami of blazing sand, which started to engulf the Britannian Army.

"We're going to have to keep doing this until the NSX is up in the air!" Clef reminded Hikaru. "We just need to keep stalling them before the gateway to our world is open again!"

"Understood, Clef!" Hikaru acknowledged the Master Mage.

The moment Geo parked his GTO into the NSX's hangar, he immediately disembarked his Mecha and went straight to the command bridge. As soon as he arrived, Geo sees Zazu and Lantis at the helm.

"Geo, I already gave Zulruch the coordinates of where the gateway will open at." Zazu informed the Sub-Commander. "He'll be arrive at our destination!"

"Good work, Zazu." Geo said as he acknowledged the young mechanic's report. "Activate the Sakuradite Gateway! We're going home!"

Upon heeding Geo's orders, the entire crew of the NSX went to their stations as the helmsmen started up the engines for take-off. In just a few minutes later, Lantis sees the main screen pull up to reveal the area below the NSX. He realized that the Autozamian Battleship is slowly ascending just almost above the mountain top. As the Magic Swordsman observed closely at the screen, Lantis noticed that Clef's Knightmare and Rayearth are still down below them.

"Geo, let's inform Clef and Hikaru that it is time to leave!" Lantis told the Autozamian Commander.

* * *

Back at the desert, Hikaru starts to hear Lantis' voice echoing inside her head.

 _"Hikaru, the NSX is taking off! Let's go!"_

"Clef, did you hear that?!" Hikaru asked the Master Mage.

"Yes, I did!" The Master Mage replied as his Archwizard disengage his magic in conducting the sandstorm.

Without standing around anymore, Rayearth flew up towards the NSX as jets of fire started spewing out from his feet and from his back. As for the Archwizard, Clef fired one Slash Harken for Hikaru to grab onto. The moment Hikaru got ahold of the Harken with Rayearth's right hand, she pulled up Clef's Knightmare and hurled it towards the NSX with all of her physical strength. In such upward speed, the Archwizard started to dart straight at the side hull of the NSX.

On the other side, right after the sandstorm finally dissipated, Oldrin became the first to spot the two Knightmares flying towards an ascending NSX.

"Marrybell, it's Clef and Hikaru! They're getting away onboard that battleship!" Oldrin informed the Britannian Princess through her royal private channel.

"Is the Canterbury unit ready to fire?!" Marrybell asked Oldrin.

"Yes, my milady!" Oldrin responded in a positive tone. "They still remain undamaged by that unexpected sandstorm!"

"Give them the order to shoot down that battleship!" Marrybell ordered.

Clef's Knightmare became the first to land on top of the NSX before Rayearth hovered in the air and head towards the Master Mage's position.

"Lantis, me and Hikaru are on top of the ship's hull!" Clef spoke from the intercom inside his Knightmare.

Before Lantis could reply Clef's message, the NSX shook violently as the rumbling made the Archwizard almost lose its balance. The rumbling didn't stop as Hikaru sees powerful green beams hitting the shields of the Autozamian Battleship. Upon every impact, the shields were taking heavy blasts from being shot below the NSX. At the bridge, everyone was struggling to hold onto something as they felt vibrating and red flashes erupting where Geo and Zazu are standing at.

"Geo, we're still getting bombarded from below! Look at the monitor!" Zazu shrieked.

On the monitor, they see three Canterbury artillery mechs continuously shooting at the NSX 500 miles away from their position. Frantically, Geo issues out another word on the speakers.

"Helmsman, engage full thrusters!" Geo ordered. "We have to get to the portal as quick as possible before our shields are down!"

"Yes sir!" The helmsman replied as he pulled on a thrust lever next to his right.

Outside of the NSX, Clef activated his Core Luminous Barrier Shield with the Archwizard's Staff. The moment the staff lit up in a white hue, it created a huge, wide blue shield to block the oncoming fire from the Britannian Artillery.

"It may improve the NSX defenses, but not for more than ten minutes!" Clef told Hikaru.

"Fuu! Get up here! We need your help!" Hikaru shouted as she spoke from inside Rayearth, who is also using her magic to reinforce the NSX's shield.

From inside the hangar, Fuu heard Hikaru's voice and went up to the elevator near the parked GTO. The moment the Wind Knight got inside the elevator, Fuu pressed on the button leading all the way to the outside balcony of the battleship. As soon as she got there, Fuu drew out her sword and summoned Windam Delta before embarking on her Green Rune God. The moment she raised out Windam's right hand, Fuu casted her "Wings of Protection" spell are the area where the battleship is being bombarded at. While Fuu held onto her spell, Hikaru raised her hand up towards the sky before casting down one of her spells at the Canterbury unit.

"RED THUNDER!"

At the top of Hikaru's voice, a barrage of red lighting strikes came down towards the Canterbury unit, much to Marrybell's anger. With each lighting strike, the Canterburies were losing their balance as Hikaru's spell started creating fissures that made the artillery unit fire aimlessly away from the NSX. Before they knew it, the Canterbury unit fell straight into the fissure as the pilots screamed in terror. Just like that, all three of them disappeared into the darkness of the fissure below Marrybell and the rest of her battalion.

"CURSE YOU, HIKARU!" Marrybell snarled. "I knew I should've equipped my Knightmare with a float system when I had the chance!"

However, just when Marrybell is started to give up, Bismarck and the Knights of Three and Six flew right above her and the Lancelot Trial while piloting their Knightmares.

"Ms. Hikaru, we still got incoming!" Fuu shouted as she spotted the Mordred opening fire with a barrage missiles aiming directly at the NSX.

"Geo, heads up! The Knights of the Round are here!" Hikaru spoke through the communicator while inside Rayearth.

"The Sakuradite Gateway will open up in a few minutes." Geo told the Magic Knights before issuing an order for them. "Hold off them off until then!"

"Understood!" Umi acknowledged as she ran towards the balcony of the NSX before embarking on her Rune God Knightmare.

As soon as Hikaru drew out her sword, the Galahad was a few feet away from her before engaging the Knight of Fire in close combat. In an instant, the Galahad clashed its Excalibur on top of Rayearth's broadsword before Hikaru struggled to hold her ground. Behind her, Hikaru felt herself skidding towards the edge of the Battleship NSX. The Flame Knight started gritting her teeth as she tried her best not to let herself and Rayearth fall off the NSX.

"I hope you could keep up with me, Hikaru!" Bismarck spoke from inside the Galahad. "Because, there is no daring opponent out there that I can't handle as the Knight of One!"

"In your dreams, Bismarck!" Hikaru growled as she activated Rayearth's jets protruding from his back.

As Hikaru disengages her sword from the Galahad, Rayearth jumped up high and flipped over the purple Knightmare before landing on top of the NSX again. Rayearth and Galahad turned around to face each other again, but this time Hikaru swung her sword in a vertical arc. In an instant, Rayearth's sword unleashed a white, destructive ray at Bismarck's Knightmare. The moment Bismarck grinned, he drew out the Galahad's Jousting Lance, which was hanging on its left shoulder with a sling attached to it. When the ray got a few feet closer to Galahad, the purple Knightmare flew up into the air and hurled the lance straight at Rayearth. However, Hikaru whacked the Lance away from her face with Rayearth's shield and ascended towards the Galahad. In decent speed, Rayearth slammed its broadsword at the Galahad only to get parried by Bismarck's Excalibur MVS.

On the other side of the NSX, Anya fired another shot with the Mordred's Hadron Cannon at the battleship only to get blocked by Fuu's Wings of Protection spell. In retaliation, Fuu raised up Windam Delta's right hand and launched another spell at Anya's Knightmare.

"EMERALD CYCLONE!"

As the swarm of small, crescent-like green blades headed straight towards the Mordred, Anya veered to her left in evading Fuu's spell by three meters from her right. Next to Anya, the Tristram Fortress Mode zoomed towards Fuu and fired several of its machine guns at her green Rune God. Windam jumped backwards, evading shots before pulling out her Eagle Longbow. In two seconds, after loading her Longbow with a green, energy-like arrow, Fuu aimed and fired at the Tristram. However, in a split-second, Gino veered his Tristram to his left and evaded the arrow by a mere inch from its wing-span. The moment Gino got closer to Windam, he flew over above where Fuu is standing as he switched the Tristram's Fortress Mode into its Knightmare Form. When Tristram came down from above, he raised the Knightmare's Polearm right on top of Fuu's head only for the Wind Knight to roll over to her right side before the long-shafted weapon slam into the NSX's hull undamaged.

After rolling over to her right, Fuu turned towards the Tristan as she made a side sweep with Windam's left knee up to her chest and the right knee skidding onto the hull before slowing down to a halt. As soon as Fuu regained her ground, she took out another arrow and aimed it at the Tristan with her Eagle Longbow, with its bow shaft horizontally aligned. The moment Fuu released the arrow from her grip, it flew straight at the Tristan in high velocity, much to Gino's surprise. The Knight of Three barely had time to fire a Slash Harken from his Knightmare only to miss the arrow before it pierced the mech in its left side, missing Gino by a foot from his face.

Before Gino was about to strike back at Windam Delta, the green Rune God Knightmare charged straight at him with Fuu's two-handed sword. Up close and person, the Tristan was held back as Gino struggled to hold ground against Fuu's sword with the blade slamming into the shaft of Gino's polearm, inches up to the Tristan's face.

"Don't get too arrogant, Mr. Gino!" Fuu spoke from inside Windam, giving the Knight of Three a fair warning. "I'm just warming up my moves a bit!"

"Not bad for a female Knight!" Gino grinned. "However, this is just the beginning!"

In a sudden move, the Tristan shoved Windam away with a thrust kick before swinging its polearm across the Rune God's face. Luckily, Fuu dodged it over her head before resuming her attack on Gino and his blue Knightmare.

The moment Anya regained her balance after evading Fuu's spell, she aimed her Quad Hadron Cannon at the NSX again only to see Selece Omega aim his fist at the red bulky Knightmare.

"OCEAN WYVERN!" Umi shouted as she launched her water spell at the Mordred.

Just like that, Umi's water dragon-like spell flew towards Anya. The moment Anya activated her Core Luminous shields, Umi's spell slammed into them in an instant. Even though the shields are not getting penetrated, Anya could feel herself vibrating in her cockpit as the Mordred started slowly getting pushed backwards away from the NSX.

"This is just keeps getting interesting every minute." Anya thought. "It's no wonder Umi would excel on speed the most than rather strength."

After Umi's Ocean Wyvern spell disappeared, Anya fired a barrage of missiles from the Mordred's shoulder pads and targeted the Archwizard which is right behind Selece Omega.

"Let's see if she can dodge them as a meatshield!"

When the missiles flew right past Umi, her eyes widened with horror as she sees them head straight for Master Mage Clef, who is still trying to maintain the NSX's shields with the Archwizard's Core Luminous.

"CLEF LOOK OUT!" Umi cried as she tried to warn the Master Mage.

Before Clef could see what was happening around him, his Archwizard was met with a barrage of missiles exploding near its feet. In the middle of the explosions, Clef's Knightmare was sent flying on top of the NSX's hull after getting blasted. As Umi got closer to the Archwizard, she sees the Knightmare's limbs in a total wreck and its right arm was blown into pieces.

"CLEF, ANSWER ME!" Umi cried in horror. "PLEASE, SAY SOMETHING!"

Before Umi could do anything else, the Mordred landed right behind the Knight of Water and aimed its Hadron Cannon directly at her face. Just like that, Umi started sweating as she felt that this could be her end on the battlefield.

"It won't matter what you Elevens throw at us!" Anya jeered. "You could never defy that Knights of the Round. Now say good night, Umi Ryuuzaki!"

Before Anya could fire the Hadron Cannons directly at Umi's face, the Knight of Six receives an immediate call from Bismarck.

"ANYA, BEHIND YOU!"

"Wha-UGH!" Anya gasped as she felt her cockpit shaking violently.

At the same time, several electrical wires came down from her right inside her cockpit. On her interface, Anya sees that the Mordred's right arm is flashing red. It could only mean one thing: Rayearth appeared right behind the Mordred and, as Hikaru empowered her broadsword to the fullest, the Knight of Flame cut down the Mordred's right arm with ease. As a result, the red bulky Knightmare lost its grip over the Hadron Cannon and fell on the ground in front of Anya, with its severed right arm still holding onto the weapon. Feeling humiliated by such a sneak attack, Anya steered her Mordred towards Hikaru's position and attempted to swing its left arm at Rayearth, in hopes of trying to strangle the Red Rune God.

However, Rayearth jumped a few meters backwards away from the Mordred before raising his sword up high next to his left shoulder.

A few minutes earlier, when Hikaru clashed her sword with the Galahad's Excalibur, she heard Umi scream behind Bismarck's Knightmare. The moment Hikaru saw what was happening to Selece, the Archwizard, and the Mordred, she step onto Galahad's right knee and jumped 25 feet high above the purple Knightmare before flying overhead and flew straight at Anya's Knightmare.

Before Rayearth could strike at the Mordred again, the Galahad fired its Slash Harkens at the Red Rune God. Just when Hikaru raised her shield up, one Slash Harken punctured it, allowing the Galahad to charge at Rayearth with a clean chop with its Excalibur. In response, Hikaru held her sword right in front of her shield as she blocked the Galahad's sword, resisting Bismarck's might. In just one minute after the Galahad and Rayearth backed away from each other, Hikaru receives a message from Geo Metro.

"Hikaru, the Sakuradite Gateway is now open! Have everyone hold onto something, quick!"

Right in front of the NSX, a huge rift immediately opened. As soon as Hikaru looked at where the gateway appeared, it stretched out 500 meters wide and 100 meters tall, which is big enough to allow the Autozamian Battleship enter through the dimension. One the other side of the gateway, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu see the land of Cephiro and its castle, much to their relief. However, the Knights of the Round's forces are still closing in. Whether the Magic Knights chose to escape or not, it is now or never.

"WINGS OF PROTECTION!" Fuu shouted, after disengaging her fight with Gino and the Tristan.

The moment Fuu casted her spell, it went from a small green barrier to a massive emerald ward that pushed away the Galahad, Tristan, and the Mordred from the NSX, forcing them to activate their float systems immediately. As soon as the three Britannian Knightmares regained their altitude, Fuu's spell is now seen as a giant shield bubble surrounding the NSX. The NSX, under Geo's command, fired up its main engines before proceeding into the Gateway. As soon as the battleship got closer, Lt. Commander Zulrich's Mecha arrived, along with another Autozamian Battleship similar to the NSX.

Zulrich's Mecha, the RTO, is shown to have similar features to that of Eagle's FTO, except it has two retractable laser swords attached to both of its hands and with two small laser cannons mounted on its should pads. Unlike Eagle's Mecha, it's armor is painted in yellow-green with blue lines. Upon seeing allied reinforcements on sight, the NSX increased its main thrusters as it headed straight where Zulrich and his Battleship are at. From the bridge of the NSX, Geo spots Zulrich's Mecha and his battleship from the main screen and announces his presence to them.

"Lt. Commander Zulrich are you there?!" Geo said as he used his communicator to make contact with his fellow Autozamian Officer

"Affirmative, Sub-Commander! This is Zulrich reporting for duty. We're here to back you up!" The Lt. Commander responded from Geo's Communicator. "Sir, you've got more incoming from your rear."

Right behind the NSX, the Avalon and the Lancelot Conquista appeared, both of them armed to the teeth. Outside of the NSX, while Umi is trying to help get a damaged Archwizard into the hangar, Hikaru spots enemy reinforcements moving closer in a matter of minutes, as well as seing her nemesis, Suzaku Kururugi, approach her in a hostile manner. Unfortunately, after fighting against Bismarck and the Knights of the Round, Hikaru may not have enough stamina to stop the Britannian reinforcements and Suzaku from interfering with their last hope of escape. Ultimately, Zulrich ordered his crewmen to hold the line with their battleship.

"All hands, deploy all weaponry. Get ready to fire on that Britannian ship on my command." Zulrich voice spoke from his RTO.

Upon hearing Zulrich's command, his battleship started deploying its laser cannons and missiles turrets before aiming them at the Britannian reinforcements.

"Zulrich, don't let them fire upon the NSX." Geo voice spoke, giving out orders to the Lt. Commander.

"Yes sir!" Zulrich replied as he drew out both of the RTO's laser swords from its hands.

As soon as the NSX passed through the RTO and Zulrich's battleship, the Avalon started shooting its weapons at them first.

"OPEN FIRE!" Zulrich ordered as he charged towards the Avalon and the Lancelot.

Zulrich's battleship started firing its lasers and missiles at the Avalon only to get charged at by Suzaku's Lancelot. In an instant, the Lancelot fired its newly upgraded VARIS Rifle at the battleship only to be warded off by its shield.

"MOVE ASIDE!" Suzaku shouted as he drew out the Lancelot's MVS.

Refusing to back down, Zulrich's RTO immediately engaged the Lancelot while the Avalon and his battleship started firing their weapons at each other.

As for the NSX, the ship finally pierced its front into the gateway as it slowly starts to disappear into the light. Feeling the vibration of the NSX entering through the gateway, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu all lay flat on the stomachs of their Rune gods while holding onto the hull. As Hikaru looked back, she immediately sees Zulrich trading sword strikes against the Lancelot when all of a sudden, the Lancelot cut off the RTO's left hand and rammed the Mecha in the stomach. In a blink of an eye, the Lancelot lifted up Zulrich's mecha above its head with both of its hands and slammed him straight into his own battleship. Zulrich screamed for his life as his Mecha is about to get slammed into the command bridge of his own battleship. Inside the bridge, the crewmen spotted what was happening from outside and immediately left their stations before running into cover. Unfortunately, the moment Zulrich's mecha crashed into the bridge's windows, it immediately engulfed into a fiery explosion that also blew up the bridge in a heart beat. Upon seeing all of this happening before her, Hikaru just realized that Suzaku's Knightmare has gotten stronger than like last time. For Geo Metro, he will have no choice to but to give an honorable burial for Zulrich and his men as soon as he goes back to Cephiro. 

The last thing Geo saw from Zulrich's battleship was that it lost all of its altitude and disappeared into a billowing smoke. After that, the NSX, along with the Magic Knights, disappeared into the Sakuradite Gateway. Before the Lancelot or the Avalon got anywhere closer to the Gateway, it also disappeared as well, sealing away the connection that bridges Cephiro and Britannia.

"Well played, Hikaru. Well played." Bismarck sighed from inside his Galahad.

"Prince Schiezel, this is Suzaku Kururugi!" Suzaku spoke from inside the Lancelot. "The escapees have fled back into the New World!"

"Never mind them anymore! We dealt enough damage for now!" Schiezel's voice spoke from the Lancelot's communication channel. "For now, lets return to base."


	6. The worst is yet to come

Five hours after the NSX disappeared into the Sakuradite Gateway, along with the rest of the escapees, the Avalon landed several meters away from the collapsed Cantebury Unit. For the Lancelot Conquista, Suzaku was ordered to secure the crash site, which was the damaged Autozamian Battleship commanded by Zulrich earlier. While surveying the crash site, Suzaku sees a small group of Autozamian crew members waving the white flag as they all appeared from the hull near the damaged command bridge of the battleship.

"Prince Schniezel, I spotted a group of crew members showing up from the downed battleship. What are your orders?" Suzaku reported as he spoke through the royal private channel.

"Have them all detained. We need prisoners to interrogate on what is happening back at the New World!" The 2nd prince announced from the royal channel.

"Understood, my lord!" Suzaku acknowledged as he landed the Lancelot 10 meters in front of them.

Behind the Lancelot, a squad of 5 Glinda Sutherlands appeared and aimed their guns at the defeated Autozamian crewmen before taking them prisoner. As Suzaku continued to observe the scene at the crash site, he spotted a wrecked RTO laying on its right side. The RTO was seen to have both wing thrusters completely cut off from its back, several wires are ripping apart from its severed right arm, and its face was missing from its body. Its as if the RTO became headless after Suzaku hurled the Mecha straight into the Autozamian Battleship. Before Suzaku could come any closer, a laser sword jutted out from the cockpit, which is in the RTO's torso. After the laser cut out a big hole, Zulrich appeared right behind the his own crew with his hands reaching up to the sky.

Zulrich was seen wearing a yellow, beige cloak. Underneath his cloak, Zulrich is dressed in a beige Autozamian uniform with combat armor attached to it. Just like most of the Autozamians, Zulrich is wearing a headband with an orb and a wire attached to it on his head. He had green eyes, brown hair, and a pony tail tied behind the back of his head. Unfortunately, by the time Zulrich emerged from his downed Mecha, his head was bleeding from his upper left temple and his right lower abdomen; his injuries were the result of his Mecha getting heavily damaged by the Lancelot's attacks. Despite his crippled state, Zulrich still stood up before all of his men dauntlessly.

Upon seeing Zulrich in a clear view from his position, Suzaku disembarked from the Lancelot and aimed the gun at Autozamian Commander.

"Who are you trying to interfere our mission of recapturing the enemy escapees?" Suzaku asked sternly.

"I happen to be another officer serving in the army belonging to one of Cephiro's allies!" Zulrich replied in a calm tone of voice. "I was only following orders from Sub-Commander Geo Metro of Autozam."

"Where are they, Autozamian?!" Suzaku snarled as he approached Zulrich while holding his gun up to the Autozamian's face. "They haven't went back to the New World, did they?!"

"You won't be seeing them again for awhile!" Zulrich smirked as he was met with pistol whip to the temple by Suzaku. Just like that, the world around Zulrich went black. The Autozamian is temporarily unconscious.

As Suzaku turned around, he ordered the Britannian troops, who were piloting several Sutherlands, to circle around and round up the rest of Zulrich's surviving crew members back onboard the Avalon. For the unconscious Zulrich, Suzaku carried him all the way back to the Lancelot as he held the Autozamian over his shoulders.

For Marrybell and her men, they went down into the fissures that Hikaru just created with her magic as they slowly lowered themselves with their slash harkens. During the time Suzaku and the Knights of the Round are taking Zulrich and his men prisoner, Marrybell gave out the order to check on the Canterbury crews that fell into the fissure to see if anyone survived the fall. As the Glinda Knights landed softly on the ground in the fissure, Oldrin's Knightmare activated a flood light coming from the right side of its head.

In just a few minutes, Oldrin shine the Gloucester's light onto the fallen Canterbury. The artillery knightmare was seen to have collapsed onto its left side, with its main gun broken in two as its barrel is a few feet away. For the other two, both of the artilleries somehow fell on top of each other before it exploded into a million pieces of rubble. By raising one hand towards the downed artillery unit, Oldrin ordered the Glinda Knights to secure the wrecked for any crew members that survived the Canterbury wreckage.

Back up on the surface, the Mordred, who is still missing an arm, landed in front of the Avalon before the crew went in to help repair Anya's Knightmare. As the Knight of Six disembarked from the Mordred, Anya couldn't help but feel stressed after getting taken down again by Hikaru and her Rune God Knightmare twice. Before she could say anything, Gino came out of his Tristan and tried to cheer Anya up.

"Don't look like that, Anya. I'm sure we'll teach that little spitfire a lesson one of these days."

"Well, I wasn't just angry, I'm feel a bit jealous that she had powers that I have yet to comprehend!" Anya pouted. "I hope one day I'll use them against that red-haired she-freak."

"Lloyd did warn us that Hikaru wields more power and resistance with her Knightmare than the other two." Gino informed Anya.

"I don't care!" Anya said sternly. "Even when dealing with a tough girl like her, I know she still has her limits. Besides, my Mordred is still tougher than steel!"

While Gino took Anya into the Avalon for a break, Suzaku landed his Lancelot into the ship's hangar before disembarking and having the Britannian Marines take Zulrich into custody. After seeing them take Zulrich away, Suzaku went up to the balcony of the Avalon and looked up to the sky where the NSX was last seen at.

"Euphy, please wait for me." Suzaku said to himself as his eyes narrowed intensely. "I will rescue you!"

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the New World, the NSX reappeared into Cephiro's airspace right above the clouds. While venturing through the clouds and the sky, the NSX descended into the surface 1,500 feet below them. As they approached the Castle of Cephiro, the Cephirians started cheering for the heroes that saved them at the Tokyo Settlement, despite their late achievements. Within the crowd, Caldina, Lafarga, and Presea have also made their appearance. Upon noticing that the Battleship from Autozam has finally returned to the New World, all three of them were totally shocked. They were hoping that the rest of their friends were onboard the NSX as well. So, Lafarga ordered a team of his guardsmen to secure a landing zone just to pave way to the rest of the survivors from the Black Rebellion in the Tokyo Settlement.

In the command bridge of the NSX, Geo spots the Dome of Fahren and the Bravada of Chizeta being stationed on both sides of Cephiro's Castle. Without further a due, Geo Metro makes his announcement to everyone through the intercoms.

"Everyone, we have finally made it back to our realm. We're proceeding towards the Castle, so please prepare to disembark once we reach port!"

"It's so good to be back home, isn't it Master Mage?!" Lantis said to Clef.

"We still need to check up on the rest of our collaborators and reorganize our defenses all-around the castle." Clef informed Lantis and the Magic Knights. "We just barely had enough time to get away from the might of Britannia's warriors."

As Clef finally recovered, he is know seen with a bandage wrapped around his head due to being attacked by the Mordred earlier.

As soon as Hikaru went up to the bridge to take a closer look at the Castle, Umi and Fuu followed her from behind.

"I don't know what would really happen to us if it weren't for Kallen and the Black Knights at Pendragon." Hikaru said, feeling a bit relieved.

"Well, we still need to be very careful, Hikaru!" Clef told the Fire Knight. "Don't forget, that they'll be looking for Princess Euphemia here."

"If only Euphy didn't cause that horrendous incident at Mount Fuji, I'm sure none of this would've happened." Hikaru said, feeling a bit ashamed for kidnapping the 3rd Princess of Britannia. "I'm still haunted by the fact that I captured a Princess belonging to an enemy country."

"Well, that wasn't your fault, Hikaru." Clef told the Flame Knight. "She needed help anyways. Remember when the time you tried to save Princess Emeraude four years ago only to end in failure? I didn't want you and your friends to make that same mistake twice. It may not be very smart of us, but it was the right thing to do."

"It's only a matter of time before they'll resume their attack upon us, just to get Euphemia back." Lantis warned Clef and Hikaru.

"Commander! We're receiving a broadcast coming from Area 11!" One of Geo's officers reported below him.

"Put it on screen!" Geo ordered.

As the screen filled up the monitor, the masked hero Zero makes his appearance once again. Upon seeing Zero, the Magic Knights, Clef, Geo, and Zazu all gasped in shock.

"It's Zero!" Everyone said in unison.

 _"I AM ZERO! PEOPLE OF JAPAN AND OF THE NEW WORLD, I HAVE RETURNED!"_ Zero exclaimed as he raised both of his hands wide.

"It looks like Kallen and her men were able to succeed in rescuing Mr. Zero." Fuu thought to herself in silence.

At the same time, on board the Bravada and the Dome of Fahren, Zero also made his appearance on screen as well. In an instant, the Princesses of Chizeta and Fahren are all shocked that the leader of the Black Knights actually returned.

"Sang Yung, Qiang Aing!" Lady Aska shouted. "Are you both seeing this?"

"No way! I thought they said that Zero was dead!" Qiang gasped in surprise.

 _"HEAR ME BRITANNIA! ALL OF YOU WHO HAD POWER! HEED ME WORDS CAREFULLY!" Zero continued his announcement. "WAR AND DISCRIMINATION, MALICIOUS DEEDS CARRIED OUT BY THE STRONG; THE SAME INTERPLAY OF TRAGEDY! THE WORLD HAS NOT CHANGED."_

 _"_ I-I don't believe it!" Tarta gasped. "I thought Zero was presumed dead after he fled Area 11!?"

"Oh my, it looks as if were in for such a miracle!" Tatra giggled.

 _"THE PEOPLE STILL SUFFER. THAT IS WHY THE RESURRECTION OF ZERO IS NECESSARY. AS LONG THE STRONG SUPPRESS THE WEAK, MY REBELLION CONTINUED TO GROW! IT BEGINS TODAY AFTER THE DIVINE PUNISHMENT THAT I HAVE GIVEN TO THE FOOLISH VICEROY COLARIS."_

Back at the command bridge of the NSX, Hikaru is contemplating on trying to ask Zero more questions as she continued to watch the screen sternly. Ever since Zero fled the Tokyo Settlement during the time that she was helping the Cephrians escape from the Britannian Government Bureau, the Flame Knight is facing some doubts over Lelouch's actions. In her point of view, Hikaru is suspecting that Zero is still hiding something from her and her fellow Magic Knights.

"Zero, if we ever meet again, you and I need to have a long talk!" Hikaru muttered to herself.

The moment Clef stepped forward, he turned to face Hikaru, who is also finding Zero's intentions very suspicious. When Hikaru looked at Clef back and towards the screen, she couldn't help but wonder where in Area 11 is Zero right now.

 _"I shall fight for all those who abuse their power. Therefore, once again, here and now! I shall declare the establishment of the UNITED STATES OF JAPAN!"_

"He's still trying to reestablish our former nation, isn't he?!" Umi pondered. "That Zero hasn't changed one bit!"

"I do wonder how far will Mr. Zero expand our nation, if there is any?" Fuu asked to herself.

After Zero's image disappeared, along with the screen, Hikaru, Lantis, and Clef went into their guest rooms within the NSX's corridors before discussing what they've all been through so far.

"I still don't get why would Zero disappear after we got our people out of the Government Bureau!" Lantis thought before turning towards to Hikaru. "Hikaru, I think your friend is still hiding something from us!"

"Come on, Lantis. He and I still have a long way to go before restoring Tokyo to its former glory. What's in the past is already done." Hikaru said, still feeling confident in Zero's pride.

"I agree with Lantis, Hikaru!" Clef added, feeling anxious to rally with Zero and the Black Knights again. "Do you remember what I told him earlier when you brought Zero and the Black Knights to us?!"

Upon hearing what Clef just said, Hikaru remembered last year about the Master Mage's warning aiming directly towards Lelouch.

 _"We don't like being ordered around when falling under any evil spells or under any evil curses."_

"I know, Clef. Suzaku told me that his Geass was his undoing!" Hikaru told Clef, much to him and Lantis' shock.

"Geass? What's that?!" Clef asked Hikaru.

"I don't actually know about Geass yet. However, from what Suzaku said while I was being interrogated back at Pendragon, I think it might have something to do with Princess Euphemia, right before you ordered me to capture her at Mt. Fuji." Hikaru said, in a hunch.

"If that's the case, we still need to investigate on what happened between Zero and Euphy." Lantis suggested to Hikaru.

"Actually, Prince Schniezel said he might try to figure that out too." Hikaru continued.

"Are you sure about that, Hikaru?" Clef asked, feeling concerned over an enemy prince's intentions. "What if he's just trying to trick you after what he learned about Euphy last year? He's just another Britannian Prince after all."

"And more importantly, what makes you think this Schniezel would do it?!" Lantis added in, trying to counter-claim against Hikaru's statement. "He was the one who had the Knights of the Round capture most of us back there. I'm not sure we can trust that guy to investigate Euphy's case."

"Because he said all of that to me when I was still imprisoned in Pendragon." Hikaru answered briefly, thinking back on how she looked into the 2nd Britannian Prince in the eyes. "I didn't say anything about trusting him. I'm saying that he would do it because he is Euphy's elder brother. In fact, we don't have to trust Schneizel to do it, we'll just keep all of this a secret and let him figure it out on his own. For now, we'll still consider him as an enemy until he announces otherwise."

"I hope you had the right idea, Hikaru." Clef said, suspiciously. "Our country is still vulnerable to another attack, whether or not it's Prince Schneizel's doing."

"By the way Hikaru, I did felt Nova's presence during your fight with Guilford!" Lantis informed the Fire Knight. "Do you think she's still going to come back to help you fight for our country."

"I can't say for sure but she did came back home." Hikaru said, remembering how Nova helped her deal with Guilford at the Tokyo Settlement.

"Well, since you helped reformed Nova after her defeat, she'll still make it up to you as your consciousness from now on." Clef told Hikaru. "Her and Regalia."

"Say Clef, what do we do now since we're finally back home?!" Lantis asked the Master Mage.

"Hikaru, you might as well go check up on Euphy and Darlton to see how they're doing." Clef suggested the Flame Knight. "The rest of us will head towards the castle for a debriefing as well as a banquet to celebrate our liberation against the Britannian Forces at Area 11. We'll be waiting for you."

"Okay then. I'll see you back at the Castle." Hikaru said cheerfully as she made her way out of the guest room and disappeared into the corridors.

In a few minutes later, Rayearth appeared outside of the window from the room that Clef and Lantis are in as the Red Rune God flew west of the NSX.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Forest of Silence, Euphy was seen wearing a white, short-sleeve dress with pink linings and a long, a pink skirt reaching down to her ankles, and a white sun hat with a pink rose on top of it. For her feet, Euphy is wearing pink slippers. As Euphy went out of the cottage, she was picking some berries from an open field.

For Darlton, he is now wearing a red ragged shirt with a brown apron attached to it. For his legs, Darlton has light brown pants reaching from his waist down to his shins. While walking around, Darlton is using black, working boots for his feet.

Throughout one year, after the Cephirians returned to their homeland, Darlton and Euphy spent most of their time exploring all over Cephiro and the villages within its borders. While at his cottage, Darlton was busy planting and growing oranges in a small plot behind the building. Euphy couldn't help but feel excited in seeing so many floating mountains and glimmering oceans. Last time Euphy was here was during the time Cornelia, she tried to help Clovis navigate their battleship during the siege of Cephiro's Castle only to get taken down by the Autozamians and a Palu Summoner. Now that she and Darlton are no longer in command of Britannia's Forces, they're living at peace while staying hidden away from the rest of the Cephirians.

After witnessing how the Magic Knights and Clef saved Euphy from her sudden afflictions, Darlton couldn't figure out how to repay them, despite her temporary abduction at Mt. Fuji. However, since he failed to make negotiations with Lord Kirihara and that Kirihara was executed after the Black Rebellion due to Euphy's unexpected behavior, the Japanese may not forgive him and the 3rd Princess the way Hikaru and her friends did. Hence why, he and Euphy went to Cephiro to find refuge and be at ease. In just three minutes of maintaining his garden plots, Darlton snapped out his past thoughts as he sees Rayearth appear several meters above him.

The moment Rayearth landed on the other side of the cottage, Euphy was the first to run up to the Rune God before Hikaru disembarked.

"Hikaru! Welcome back!" Euphy said cheerfully. "What happened after you saved your people?"

"Things got out of hand after that." Hikaru explained grimly. "My friends and I got captured and were sent to Pendragon to await execution. But we're able to escape thanks to the Black Knights."

"That's terrible." Euphy gasped. "I wish they stop fighting each other in vain!"

"Euphy, can you go inside? Darlton asked. "I need to speak with Hikaru alone for a moment."

After Euphy nodded, the pink-haired girl went back inside the cottage as she closed the front door behind her. After Darlton sees Euphy disappear inside the small building, he turns back towards Hikaru.

"Say, did anything else happened back at Area 11?" Darlton said, curiously.

"We barely made it back to the New World when the Knights of the Round were hot on our trail." Hikaru said, feeling a bit shaken after her encounter with Bismarck and the Galahad.

"Is that so?" Darlton said, lifting one eyebrow high than the other.

"Prince Schiezel said he may try to conduct his investigation over Euphy's unexpected mishap." Hikaru continued. "Did you and Euphy had any trouble living in Cephiro?"

"Not at all," Darlton said, making Hikaru feel a bit relieved. "We both made quite an expedition all over this country for several days before returning to this cottage every once in a while. Though, I still miss living in Britannia."

"The bad news is that because Princess Euphy was presumed to be abducted, its just a matter of time before the Knights of the Round show up and start attacking our castle just to get Euphy back." Hikaru finished in a grim tone of voice.

"I guess we both went way in over our heads, didn't we?!" Darlton said, feeling guilty that he made his decision to have Euphy leave Area 11 along with him. "I apologize for having you do this to us, but unless something is done to clear out Euphy's dishonored name, you must not hand over Euphy back to the Britannian Empire yet."

"Even when the Black Knights are demanding me where she is as well?!" Hikaru asked, trying to clarify on Euphy's situation.

"Yes!" Darlton answered calmly. "In fact, I still think Zero might have done something to Euphemia alone."

"I wouldn't accuse of Zero for anything yet. I still want to believe that Zero will save Japan and Cephiro." Hikaru retorted.

"Even now, it's still not too late to understand Britannia, Hikaru because I still think Zero is hiding something from both of us."

"Is it because of what Prince Schniezel is planning to do?!" Hikaru asked, feeling a bit skeptical over Britannia's future. "I still may not trust him as much as I trust Zero."

"I've been very close to him and Cornelia since she assigned herself into Britannia's Military." Dartlon added in. "For Zero, I'm suspecting that it may be someone from the Britannian Royal Family. Ever since I heard that Lelouch vi Britannia was exiled to Japan as a bargaining tool, it's possible that he might swore revenge on my people, just like you did."

"I didn't fight Britannia out of revenge, I fought with them because their power became out of control." Hikaru said, truthfully. "Someone has to step in to halt their conquest."

"Well, I never did understood my limits until just recently before I retired from the Britannian Military." Darlton replied as he scratched the back of his head. "I was just only doing my duty. Nevertheless, I know Schneizel will do the right thing this time, despite the Knights of Round making their advance here. For now, just play along with their battle until he gives you a sign."

"Are you sure about this?" Hikaru asked. "You and Euphy do need to face Scheniezel again whether or not he found proof about what happened between her and Zero."

"Only time will tell, Hikaru." Darlton continued. "One other thing, try not to tell anyone about Euphy or me."

"Understood, sir!" Hikaru acknowledged.

After her conversation with ex-Britannian General, Euphy came out with a freshly baked apple pie, much to Hikaru's surprise.

"Wow, it looks delicious." Hikaru said in excitement.

"I'm pretty sure you were tired from your long journey all the way back here." Euphy smiled.

"Thanks so much, Euphy." Hikaru said before taking a small piece of pie.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the Castle of Cephiro, Geo and the rest of the surviving Cephirians disembarked from the NSX before ordering the crewmembers to help restock, resupply, and tune up their Knightmares and Mecha a bit. While the Autozamians were working on the Cephirian Knightmares, the Cephirian villagers were preparing a feast to honor the successful attempt of saving their people from Britannia at the Tokyo Settlement. For Umi and Fuu, they went with their boyfriends down to the castle courtyard while taking a break from their last battle with Britannia.

At the same time, Lantis met up with Clef in his room to go over what happened when Hikaru faced off Guilford on last time, while the Master Mage is trying to recover after getting injured by Anya's Mordred.

"You know Lantis, I never really did expect that Nova would return just to make it up to us." Clef contemplated.

"I didn't think she show up after being gone for so long either." Lantis added in.

"Since Nova is still part of Hikaru's shadow, it was her will that allowed her altered ego to aid the Knight of Fire whenever she is in trouble." Clef informed the Magic Swordsman.

"Setting Nova's presence aside, do you think we can still trust Lelouch as our ally or do we need to seek aid elsewhere to end our war with Britannia?" Lantis asked the Master Mage.

"I know what you mean, Lantis." Clef acknowledged. "From what Hikaru said about Lelouch's Geass, I still need to confirm what does it actually do because something tells me that Lelouch is up to something no good."

"You mean, we can't trust Lelouch anymore?!" Lantis said, trying to clarify Clef's statement. "Because he's a Britannian as well?!"

"Not just a Britannian, but rather a person possessing the heart of a demon!" Clef said in a grim tone. "There is still some things out there that are far more worse than just a war occurring between both our world and the Magic Knights' world. We still need to be very careful around the Leader of the Black Knights."

"I understand." Lantis said before taking his leave from Clef's study. "I'll go check on Hikaru to see how she's doing."

After Lantis left Clef's room, the Master Mage looked up to the celling thinking about what will ever become of their allegiance with the Black Knights. Ever since he saw Lelouch's face behind Zero's mask, Lantis couldn't help but feel a bit skeptical after noticing the smirk on the former Britannian Prince. As he went down to the courtyard, Lantis sees several Cephirian guards, Autozamian Marines, Chizetian, and Fahrenian guards hanging out on top of the garrisons. For the civilians, some where delivering supply carts through the castle gates while being escorted by squads of 5 Cephirian guardsmen. Up on the battlements, a few Cephirian Knightmares were stationed near the parapets.

As Lantis got closer to the Knightmares, he spotted something different about them. Before Lantis knew it, an Autozamian engineer was looking at his ipad when going over the Knightmare's new data. All of a sudden, Geo Metro appeared right next to the right of the Magic Swordsman.

"Geo, what is this?!" Lantis asked the sub-commander in a calm tone.

"Before I went onboard the NSX just to escape Pendragon, I did spotted several blueprints of the new Knightmares that are still under-development hanging inside my officer quarters," Geo explained to the Magic Swordsman. "I think Prince Clovis must've posted those documents when he hijacked my ship. They gave me another idea on how to improve our Cephirian Knightmare Frames."

"Do we still have the resources to upgrade our Knightmares?!" Lantis asked.

"Not yet, we still need to raid a few Britannian army bases back in Area 11!" Geo continued. "Since our war with Britannia is still far from over, we need to act now before they come back. Otherwise, they'll unleash another army that cannot be defeated."

"I do need Clef's permission first!" Lantis told Geo.

"Also, we still haven't received word from Rakshata since after the Black Rebellion!" Geo added. "She's still my only chance to help upgrade our knightmares."

"What were you saying about upgrading Cephiro's Knightmares?" A female voice asked.

Behind Geo and Lantis, Rayearth appeared before them as it descended from sky and landed several feet away from them. The moment Hikaru came out of her Rune God, Geo explained what he was trying to say.

"I forgot to tell you that Prince Clovis left behind some documents explaining every detail about the new Knightmares that may come into play very soon." Geo summarized as he handed a Knightmare blueprint to the Knight of Fire.

As soon as Hikaru took the blueprint, she looked closely at it from top to bottom. After several minutes of reading it, Hikaru's eyes widened with shock.

"So, you wanted us to help you infiltrate Area 11 just to get some new Knightmare parts to for upgrades and to reestablish contact with Rakshata?!" Hikaru asked, trying to get a clear picture from what Geo is elaborating.

"Yes, that's exactly it!" Geo acknowledged. "I know this is going to be very dangerous since we caused too much of a commotion, but I still have other backup plans. For now, you have to do exactly as I say; the same goes for Umi and Fuu."

"I understand Geo!" Hikaru said in a positive, but nervous tone.


	7. Regrouping with Zero

Meanwhile back in Area 11, right after Zero rescued the rest of the Black Knights from their execution, the masked leader was being demanded with answers concerning with his AWOL during the Black Rebellion. But before Zero could answer anyone, Tohdou stepped out of the crowd and towards the masked leader.

"Zero, I may have appreciated the way you rescued us from being executed. However, it still didn't change the fact that Lady Hikaru and her forces aren't confirmed if they're still alive or not."

"That won't be a problem, Tohdou." Kallen said as she appeared behind Zero. "My team already rescued them from Pendragon before we made our way back to Area 11 to rescue Zero."

"Where's Urabe?!" Nagisa asked, who is also within the crowd of Black Knights.

"He didn't make it!" Zero answered. "Another Knightmare appeared at the entrance of Babel Tower and took him down along with his Gekka."

"However, we will not let his sacrifice be in vain!" Tohdou announced. "We'll still keep our operations a secret. There is no one else that we can rely on other than Zero and the Magic Knights!"

"But where are the Magic Knights and Cephiro's armies now?" One of the Black Knights asked.

"We both went our separate ways." Kallen told her fellow Black Knights. "They're likely back home in the New World by now."

"We still haven't confirmed if Britannia will still strike at their homeland again. We need answers!" Another Black Knight suggested. As the rest of the Black Knights muttered and clamored in agreement, Zero raises his hand out towards the crowd.

"Other than that, the Magic Knights are still Japanese, are they not?!" Tamaki asked.

"I will find a way to make contact with them again. Then, we'll carry out our plans to unify all of Japan." Zero announced.

"Shin ke and the Chinese Federation may have helped us escape Babel Tower, but even they will not have enough power to oppose against Britannia, neither will the E.U." Ohgi said out loud. "We're still not sure how long with the Cephirians will last against the Empire's might."

"Why worry about them Ohgi?" Kallen protested. "They've already been through a lot worse in the New World than any of us did before we rose up. After all, they were the second group ever to fight back against Britannia in Area 11."

"Kallen's right!" Tamaki said in excitement. "I can't wait to see how they're doing."

"I understand." Ohgi said reluctantly. "Since we've been given a second chance to continue our rebellion against the Britannians, we'll hold our position until the Cephirian Alliance shows up, for Zero our hero!"

As the rest of the crowd raised their fists up high, they all chanted "Zero" out loud, while C.C stood in the shadows behind the doors facing Zero.

* * *

Somewhere back at the abandoned docks, Hikaru, Umi, Fuu, Zazu, and Geo appeared from the shadows of a nearby dock house, wearing black cloaks in hopes of hiding their identities away from public view. All four cloaked people cautiously made their way into the city from the entrance of the dock as they slowly looked left and right before heading down the street. In the midst of the surroundings of the Magic Knights and the Autozamians, it was already dark by the time they arrived in Area 11 through a magic portal that Hikaru had summoned earlier. Even though the streets are very quiet, it didn't change the fact that the Magic Knights are now wanted fugitives on the run. So, Geo granted them stealth cloaks before heading back in their world. While Geo is eager to steal more Knightmare components for analysis and upgrading the Cephirian Knightmares, Fuu protested saying that they need to make contact with the Black Knights first before carrying out Geo's newest operation.

"So Geo, do you know where we go from here?" Hikaru whispered to the Autozamian Commander.

"We need to find another secret base of operations, since the very same shipyard that we were hiding in was under investigation since last year after the Black Rebellion." Geo quietly announced. "Apart from the blueprints that Clovis left on my ship, I did more research into the computer logs that he put in the computer mainframe. It turns out that he also ordered the shipyard under complete lock down. That could only mean that we can't setup base there anymore; it'll make things easier for them to find us. So, we are to reach our rendezvous with Zero's last location."

"Understood, we still need the aid of Mr. Zero and the Black Knights if we were to win back our country again." Fuu added in.

"Then, let's keep moving!" Umi whispered. "We all have a long night ahead of us!"

As the Magic Knights and the Autozamians made their way down the street, they see only a few cars pass by, homeless people sleeping in the alleyways and on the sidewalks, and clamoring coming from the bars and pubs. Seeing that Area 11 is still the same, Hikaru couldn't imagine what happened to her parents after the Black Rebellion, neither from Umi's and Fuu's points of view. With Geo walking in front of the trio and Zazu behind them, the Autozamian Commander took out a handheld GPS with his right hand and used it to navigate their way through the city, as well as detecting any Britannian night patrols in the area.

Later on, Hikaru finally went past the school in which triggered all the memories she had before she was arrested and taken to Pendragon for execution. Upon seeing Ashford Academy, Hikaru couldn't help but feel bad in presuming that she had betrayed all of her Britannian friends there. Upon seeing her standing in front of the entrance of the school during the night, Umi and Fuu also went up to Hikaru before feeling pity over what they had done.

"I'm not sure how will they ever forgive us." Hikaru muttered in shame. "We just had to push ourselves into the brink of no return."

"The only person who betrayed us first was Suzaku Kururugi!" Umi said in disgust.

"I know, Umi." Hikaru pouted. "He was once my friend back then before Britannia took over our homeland. The war eventually changed all of us. I really should've done something too before Suzaku joined the Britannian military. But since it's too late, the rebellion in Area 11 and the war between Britannia and Cephiro have completely changed both of us. Because of that, he turned into a monster beyond all reason!"

"Someday, we're going to have to teach that boy a lesson." Fuu vowed in anger. "He's not going to scare us that easily, especially with Lancelot by his side."

"Girls! There is no time for lollygagging!" Geo shouted from behind, startling them. "Our rendezvous is still five clicks away!"

Without saying another word, the girls walked away from the school as they disappeared back into the shadows along with Geo and Zazu.

Unbeknownst to them, a unknown shadowy figure was lurking behind one of the pillars near the main doors of the Academy. As he looked closely that the entrance, he spotted the three cloaked figures leave through the school entrance. After taking a good look at them, the shadowy glared at one of the girls, whom she recognized as the red-haired one that she meet 12 years earlier. It was Viletta Nu, who is now an agent working as an undercover teacher in the Ashford Academy.

"I hope you don't ever show your face in this damn school again Hikaru!" Viletta hissed in her mind. "Or so help me, I'll gut you out like a pig!"

* * *

Meanwhile back at the temporary hideout of the Black Knights, Zero/Lelouch and Kallen are now alone inside Zero's office. After Lelouch took off his Zero mask, he discussed more options with Kallen in continuing their campaign in the United States of Japan. Before Kallen made any more objections, Lelouch's phone started ringing.

"Hi, this is Zero!" Lelouch responded as he lifted phone up to his ear.

"Zero, it's me Hikaru! Are you there?!" The voice spoke out, surprising Lelouch. "We're heading to your rendezvous since the Britannians locked down the area that my friends used to hide at. We need to seek sanctuary."

"It's been a long time, Hikaru!" Lelouch replied in a calm voice. "How's everyone?!"

"They're feeling a bit traumatized no thanks to your unexpected AWOL last year!" Hikaru's voice replied in an angry tone. "I was almost executed along with my friends because of you! You owe me an explanation for your sudden disappearance!"

"Now, now, Hikaru!" Lelouch said nervously. "There's no point in dwelling in the past anymore. You should be grateful that Kallen gave you a chance to escape from the Britannian Capital."

"Well, you still owe the rest of the Cephirian Alliance, Zero!" Hikaru continued. "Because you almost made a big fool out of us!"

"Are you and your friends in Area 11, now?" Zero asked, ignoring Hikaru's stern voice.

"We are!" Hikaru replied in a more calmer tone. "Though, we need a better place to setup base because our last hideout was under constant investigation by the Britannian forces. We barely had enough time to get away from Marrybell's forces outside of Pendragon."

"Understood." Zero replied. "We'll be sending you our coordinates."

* * *

On the other side of Area 11, Lord Guilford is trying to help the Glaston Knights recover after the incident at the Gallows in Area 11 costed him one of their members. So far, only David, Edgar, and Claudio remain. Feeling guilty over the disappearance of Princess Cornelia and the death of Viceroy Colaris, Guilford is struggling in trying to keep things under control while trying to find another Viceroy to govern Area 11.

Being overwhelmed by such stress, Guilford went back to his office at the Britannian Government Bureau before trying to get some rest. As soon as he work up, Guilford went to get some coffee before heading to his desk. After doing some paperwork in his office for a few hours, Guilford heard Claudio knocking on the front door leading to the hallways.

"You may come in." Guilford acknowledged as he put a few papers of his reports into a cabinet on his left.

As soon as the door opened, Claudio appeared before him with a salute.

"At ease, Claudio!" Guilford said in a calm tone.

"Sir, we have a problem." Claudio announced. "We received word from Pendragon that the Magic Knights and their comrades have escaped from Pendragon."

"WHAT?" Guilford gasped as he spit out his coffee, nearing hitting Claudio's boots. "I thought they'd be executed by now!"

"Apparently, a Black Knight detachment came in and helped secured their escape route." Claudio informed Guilford briefly. "This was a couple of months ago way before they started showing up in Area 11 again."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER?" Guilford shouted in a rage.

"Marrybell Mel Britannian and her forces were trying to recapture them moments later after they left Pendragon." Claudio continued. "They were at their breaking point only to get intercepted by Autozamian reinforcements. The next thing that happen is when the Magic Knights and their allies escaped through another portal and disappeared again. Nevertheless, we were still able to get some prisoners to interrogate back at Pendragon."

"We may need to reserve some of our forces to attack the New World again." Guilford suggested to the Black Knights. "And this time, we'll be engaging in a rescue mission. We won't stop our attack until we locate and rescue Princess Euphemia."

"Understood, my lord!" Claudio said as he took a bow before leaving Guilford's office.

The moment Claudio disappeared back into the hallways, Guilford announced someone else's name to invoke their presence.

"Suzaku Kururugi!" Guilford exclaimed.

"Yes, my lord?" Suzaku appeared saluting the new commander of the Glaston Knights.

"Since Zero and Lady Hikaru have reappeared again, who do you think we should go after first?" Guilford asked. "I do suggest going after Hikaru again since she defeated Princess Cornelia and captured the former sub-viceroy of Area 11."

"I'd rather go after Zero first since he is remains at large." Suzaku said, making his decision clearly. "We'll let Marrybell deal with Hikaru and her followers in the New World."

"There is one problem, though." Guilford added in. "Since the Magic Knights destroyed the Sakuradite Gateway in the Tokyo Settlement last year, it may take about 3 more months of rebuilding it before we can gain access to the New World again."

"That's exactly why dealing with Zero is our top priority." Suzaku concluded. "We have Viceroy Colaris to thank for in managing the repairing operations at the Government Bureau, as well as bringing in the resources to power up the Gateway. However, now that he is dead we don't have anyone else to deal with that situation."

"That's where you're wrong, Suzaku." Guilford said, trying to clarify with what Suzaku is elaborating. "I'll be the one to continue in managing the repair operations at the Sakuradite Gateway. You will be the one leading the campaign in taking down Zero. As soon as the Sakuradite Gateway is fully repairing and functional, we'll recall you and have you accompany Marrybell and her men in resuming the assault upon the New World."

"Understood, sir!" Suzaku acknowledged as he saluted in front of the leader of the Glaston Knights.

After his conversation with Guilford, Suzaku turned towards the door before leaving his office. The moment Suzaku disappeared, Guilford turned towards the window behind as he couldn't help but be concerned for Cornelia's disappearance since the aftermath of the Black Rebellion.

* * *

Somewhere back in Area 11 behind the ruins of Babel Tower, the Magic Knights and the Autozamians walked past through the rubble not even knowing what had happened while they were gone. Before they knew it, Tamaki and his men appeared from the rubble to greet them in a friendly manner.

"Hey, there Hikaru. Long time no see!" Tamaki said cheerfully. "How's everyone back in the New World, eh?!"

"They're still trying to recover. Most of our friends are a bit traumatized after facing one year of torture in the Britannian Capital." Umi huffed in annoyance. "We just had to get the attention of the Knights of the Round!"

"Knights of the Round?" Tamaki said in shock. "You don't mean..."

"The addressed themselves to be the elite fighting force in all of the Britannian Empire." Geo grunted. "They were almost a couple of levels above us on the battlefield."

"Anyway, how are the Black Knights doing?" Hikaru asked.

"It was thanks to Zero that most of us are still able to escape the gallows." Tamaki grinned. "However, Urabe was killed when they tried to bring Zero back to us."

"Urabe?" The Magic Knights all gasped in horror. "What happened?"

"They said that a strange Knightmare called the "Vincent" intervened and almost wiped out Kallen's entire squad here in the Babel Tower." Tamaki explained. "Urabe was no exception. So, his death bought Zero some time to escape."

"I do wonder who was piloting this Vincent." Hikaru said in curiosity.

"I don't know for sure." Tamaki replied in a doubtful tone. "Enough of all that, let's go. Zero will be expecting all of you shortly."

As Tamaki lead the Magic Knights, Geo, and Zazu down into the new Black Knights' hideout, they were greeting by only three members of the Four Holy Swords, Kallen, and C.C inside a small conference room. Before Hikaru had a chance to greet them again, Tohdou stepped in.

"Welcome back to the Black Knights, my lady." Tohdou said as he took a bow towards Hikaru. "It's been too long has it?!"

"Where's Zero?!" Hikaru asked, trying to get straight to the point. "I need to talk to him alone."

"He's down in his own private quarters." Senba informed the Fire Knight.

The moment Hikaru disappeared, Umi and Fuu came up to Kallen before following up on what happened after they escaped Pendragon. After a few minutes of explaining, Kallen stood there in shock.

"So, you were saying that the Cephirian Alliance needs to find another secret base somewhere in Area 11, just to keep the Britannian Empire at bay?" Kallen said, trying to summarize their new goal.

"Ever since we ran into the Knights of the Round at Pendragon, the Magic Knights almost lost." Zazu reported in. "We made more unnecessary sacrifices before we escaped, with the NSX intact."

"Also, we need aid from Rakshata again to help rebuild the Cephirian Knightmares back in the New World." Geo added in.

"Well, I'm afraid she and Diethard fled to the Chinese Federation after Zero disappeared." C.C told the Autozamian Commander. "Well, bring them in as soon as possible."

"What else happened after the Black Rebellion?" Fuu asked Tohdou.

"Ever since you girls destroyed the Sakuradite Gateway, the Britannian engineers were taking desperate actions in trying to rebuild it again but this time they'll be installing some very powerful defensive structures around it." Tohdou explained. "They're not going to give up in invading the New World just yet. They're only just getting started."

"I may need to send in some of my scouts to see what we will be up against, than rather just the Knights of the Round." Geo pointed out to himself. "For now, I'm going to intercept some Britannian supply lines."

"Well, good luck with that Geo." Tamaki smirked. "They'll still be guarded by a squad of 8 Britannian Sutherlands and a Gloucester."

* * *

Meanwhile, all alone in the hallways, Hikaru couldn't stop sweating to herself over how will she face Zero again after his unexplained AWOL. In her mind, a part of Hikaru wanted to criticize and scold Zero for his actions. However, she is still hesitant to resort to such assertive behavior since Zero helped her free the Cephirians from their captivity in the Britannian Government Bureau. In short, Hikaru is getting the feeling that Zero, or Lelouch, isn't the same person that she remembered anymore since her childhood. Before Hikaru could get any closer to the door leading to Zero's office, C.C appeared behind her nearly startling the Knight of Fire after saying 'hello' abruptly.

"Can you at least be normal for once?!" Hikaru said, feeling exasperated by the green-haired girl's presence. "I thought you were a stalker."

"My apologizes, Lady Hikaru." C.C grinned, slyly. "I do sense that your loyalty towards Zero still remains in question."

"Well ever since that incident back at Mt. Fuji, I can't help but feel something wasn't right." Hikaru said. "Suzaku warned me that Zero isn't who he is."

"Why not?!" C.C asked.

"He mentioned to me that Zero's Geass might have something to do what happened to Princess Euphemia last year, before we carried out our last mission at the Tokyo Settlement." Hikaru summarized.

"Let me guess, you dealt with Euphy first before Zero did?" C.C asked further. "Yet, you didn't even kill her did you?!"

"No I haven't." Hikaru said while sweating underneath her breath. "Because something is telling me that Euphy isn't to blame here."

"Why did you send her to the New World after you kidnapped her instead?" C.C asked, pressurizing Hikaru more intensely. "By doing so, it gave the Empire another reason to resume their attack on your beloved realm. Zero's scouts made a full report that Lord Guilford ordered the reconstruction of the gateway that you and your friends blew up, a few days later after you're were detained and sent to Pendragon awaiting your trial. You only have two months left to deal with them before they reopen their gateway to the other world."

"It was the only thing I can do for now." Hikaru said, trying to make slow deep breaths. "Euphy may be a princess from an enemy country, but killing a princess is not a very honorable thing to do. I got those orders from Clef because they were feeling very skeptical over what Euphy is really up to."

"Even if they understood what you've been through at Mt. Fuji, how are you still going to face Zero again when his true colors will be exposed?"

"There you are! I was wondering when you'll be meeting up with Zero!" Kallen exclaimed, interrupting the secret conversation between Hikaru and C.C. "Wait, what are you two mumbling about?"

"Well, I uh..." Hikaru stammered before C.C responded.

"It's not our place to say, Kallen. I was just checking up on Lady Hikaru to see how she was doing despite her traumatic experience in Pendragon."

"I was just about to accompany Hikaru to Zero's office." Kallen said, briefly.

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Hikaru said as she decided to move on, with Kallen walking behind her. "Sorry, C.C. I have to go now."

After the two Japanese women disappeared further into the hallways, C.C head down the opposite of their direction as she was contemplating over Hikaru's fate in the future.

"Having doubts over Zero's campaign, huh?!" C.C muttered to herself. "It seems that the Magic Knights also have a dark secret too. I do wonder how will everyone react when they learn about Hikaru's actions."

At the end of the hallway, Hikaru and Kallen entered Zero's office. In the room, Lelouch was seen with only wearing his Zero outfit, excluding the mask, while sitting down on his seat in front of his desk. For the mask, it was on top of the desk to Lelouch's right. The moment Lelouch looked straight at the two japanese women, he grinned as if he felt nonchalant about everything that he did last year. However, both Kallen and Hikaru are still feeling anxious about trusting Lelouch again. Hikaru stepped forward before demanding answers from the exiled Britannian.

"Lelouch, is it true, from what Suzaku said?!" Hikaru asked in a dark, serious tone. "Did you really used your Geass to cause harm instead of good on people like me and Euphy?"

"I did better things than just use Geass, Hikaru." Lelouch said, trying to feel confident and true to himself.

"Be honest with me!" Hikaru glared. "Clef already warned you that your supernatural power will become your undoing. I don't blame him though because, even I had to be careful with the power that Princess Emeraude once had. Tell me it isn't true."

"Let's not get a little too angry here." Lelouch said, trying to keep his cool. "What's in the past is already done. You already displayed your heroism among your people, just like Kallen and the Black Knights did."

"Well, I still don't know what happened between you and Euphy that made her flip out like that!" Hikaru said, persistently. "If you really did used your Geass on Euphy, then I don't know if I can trust you anymore."

"Well, I know you Hikaru. Your heroic feats may be reckless, but when you have friends that are actually worth fighting for, you don't hesitate to find people that can be trusted. Didn't you say that you insist on protecting those that you loved and cared about?!"

"I did." Hikaru replied, trying to take a few deep breaths. "But I'm dealing with a different kind of war and I'm dealing with a different kind of allied group that came from Area 11. I didn't want to believe that you're making it worse for the Cephirians to make amends with the Britannians at Mt. Fuji but if you were, then I may have to no choice but to reconsider Cephiro's allegiance elsewhere."

"What are you saying?!" Lelouch asked, feeling a bit confused.

"What I am saying is that if you're not able to save both our countries from Britannia, then I'll have to do it myself: Me and the Cephirians without you!" Hikaru concluded, with her eyes narrowing at Lelouch.

Upon hearing what Hikaru just said, Kallen stood here speechless not knowing how to react. As for Lelouch, he had his hands on the desk while looking a Hikaru, with fear in his eyes.

"Also, did you really choose Nunnally over us, the moment that you abandoned the Black Knights and Cephiro's Alliance?!"

"Not exactly." Lelouch said, sheepishly. "Nunnally is the only sister that I have left in my family. The rest of them wouldn't understand the personal tragedy that befell on both of us."

"I thought for sure that Euphy cared about Nunnally too." Hikaru said. "Do you really think this is only about your little sister? Well, what about the other people who are struggling to find happiness too, like the Japanese and the Cephirians for instance? Did you really tricked them all too?!"

"No, I haven't." Lelouch said as he wiped the sweat off his face. "I just wanted to..."

"Perhaps, I may need to speak to Hikaru myself." Kallen interrupted as she lead the Fire Knight out of Zero's office.

The moment they were both alone, Kallen cleared her throat before speaking to Hikaru.

"Look, I know you're still trying to demand answers on why Zero abandon us back there. But if you keep putting pressure on him like that, it's not going to get us anywhere." Kallen said in a serious tone.

"Then, why did you come back for Zero after you ran away last year when Suzaku came to arrest him?" Hikaru asked the Black Knight Ace.

"I was just concerned if Zero really is fighting for us." Kallen continued. "When I discovered that Lelouch was Zero, I wasn't sure who to believe. But he told me that I should be grateful that I was able to stay alive because of him. You wouldn't been able to face Cornelia at the Tokyo Settlement if it weren't for him as well."

"Maybe so, but I'm not sure we can continue like this, Kallen." Hikaru said grimly. "He might be undermining our war with Britannia. And for what?! Nunnally's sake? He could've at least told us that she was kidnapped first before running off like that."

"Well, we still don't have anyone else with good strategies to lead the Black Knights onto the battlefield." Kallen replied persistently. "We're both Japanese you and I. So, we need Zero to help maintain law and order in the United States of Japan, for the sake of our people. Without him, the Black Knights are vulnerable and the Cephirian Alliance will lose their ground in the New World. As for Nunnally, I do felt bad having her get caught up in such madness when my team took over the Ashford Academy when she was still there, holding the students and the faculty staff hostage."

"Then, we may need someone else to replace Zero in leading the Black Knights if he abandons us again very soon! I've been protecting the Cephirians for a very long time, even before I met you and the Black Knights." Hikaru suggested. "If we're going to rescue Nunnally, I hope he doesn't do that on his own again."

"We're just going to have to pray that Zero's rescue mission won't get anymore worse." Kallen replied.

In just a few minutes, Hikaru and Kallen went back into Zero's office to discuss their new mission.

"Forgive my sudden behavior, Zero. I was just asking where do your loyalties truly lie." Hikaru asked, finally calming down after snapping at the leader of the Black Knights.

"I know where getting at, Hikaru." Lelouch said as he stopped sweating from underneath his brow. "I guess I wasn't thinking about how everyone else is feeling when I went to get Nunnally back. I won't make that same mistake twice. Let's move forward. C.C already told you about the Sakuradite Gateway, right?!"

"Yes, we have two months to stop their construction before that gateway is rebuilt." Hikaru responded. "I need time for the Cephirian Alliance to strengthen their Knightmares before they face Britannia again."

"There is one ship that is hauling special Knightmare equipment on the air. It is being escorted by a battleship that Nunnally is onboard from." Lelouch announced.

"Okay, then. Where do we start?!" Hikaru asked, feeling more confident and more determined to save Japan once again.

 *** Author's Note: Sorry it took so long. Since I have to study at UW Tacoma to pursue my career in Accounting, I can't say when will this story will be finished. So, just bear with the temporary hitatus for now. ***


	8. Daring Air Raid

Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, a huge ship similar to the Avalon appeared above the sky. It happens to be a Logres-Class Battleship that is escorting Nunnally across the sea all the way to Area 11. From both sides of the Logres battleship, two Caleron Battleships are present here to escort the ship that Nunnally was in, along with a Arms Freighter seen hauling 12 huge crates full of newly developed knightmares, weaponry, and additional components used to repair the Sakuradite Gateway as its cargo. As Nunnally made her way to the inner gardens, she couldn't stop thinking about Lelouch; especially after V.V took her to Kamine Island for reasons unknown. However, Nunnally felt relieved that she was still able to speak to Lelouch on the phone earlier. However, she couldn't help but feel concerned after being told by Lelouch to act as strangers for now. As for Hikaru, after learning about her true nature from the account of Suzaku, Nunnally couldn't help but think that whatever Hikaru is going through is, it may be all a grim misunderstanding. After feeling lost in her thoughts for a few minutes, the captain of the ship made his announcement to the young Viceroy.

"Lady Nunnally, we'll be reaching Area 11 in ETA 5 hours."

"Thank you, Captain!" Nunnally replied in a soft tone.

* * *

Meanwhile, 1,500 miles west of the Britannian Battleship, the NSX appeared in the clear blue sky. As the Autozamian Battleship is making its way towards the position of where Nunnally's ship is, the remaining members of the Four Holy Swords, Zero, Kallen, and the Magic Knights are standing by at the bridge behind Zazu and Geo.

"So Geo, did you finish prepping the tractor beam onboard the NSX?" Tohdou asked the Autozamian Commander.

"Why certainly!" Geo replied confidently. "Tohdou, you and your men are to give covering fire for the NSX while my crew move in and capture the Britannian arms freighter. The Magic Knights and Kallen will be moving in to secure the Britannian Battleship and capture the new Viceroy of Area 11."

"Don't forget, that they'll immediately be requesting reinforcements as soon as they see use in their sights. So, we need to accomplish this air raid as quick as possible before they overwhelm us." Zazu added in.

"Understood!" The Four Holy Swords said in unison.

" _Hang on Nunnally! I'm coming to save you!"_ Zero thought before turning his attention towards the Magic Knights. "Don't forget to secure the entrance for me once we reach the enemy battleship."

As the heroes of Japan and Cephiro left the bridge, they made their way to their Knightmares in the hangar of the NSX.

For Hikaru, she still felt a bit haunted by the fact that she may end up facing Lord Guilford again, despite of his defeat during the Black Rebellion. As soon as she went into a separate room at the hangar, another voice called out to her in a calm whisper.

"Hello, Hikaru. It's been awhile hasn't it?!"

"Nova, why did you help me?" Hikaru said as the purple-hair girl appeared from the shadows.

"Did you forget that I'm part of your heart Hikaru?! As long as we're together, there won't be anything that you and I can't do." Nova smiled. "Since you defeated Mother Debonair, you and I are finally free from our grief and pain. So, you might as well consider my actions against that Britannian Knight my way of paying you back."

"I suppose that makes sense, Nova." Hikaru replied, feeling a bit relieved. "Though Britannia's warpath still looms over the horizon and I just aroused in more powerful enemies."

"There won't be anything to worry about, Hikaru!" Nova acknowledged. "If anyone can save Japan, it will be you and your friends. I won't get in the way this time, since you and I will always fight alongside each till the end."

"Thanks, Nova!" Hikaru smiled as both girls started hugging each other.

"Don't hesitate to call out for me with your heart!" Nova reminded the Fire Knight.

"Understood. I've got to get going. We're on a mission to secure an enemy arms freighter and capture the Viceroy of Area 11." Hikaru said as she heard knocking coming from outside of the room that she's in.

As soon as Nova disappeared back into the shadows, the door open, revealing to be none other than Colonel Tohdou.

"Pardon the interruption kid, but were you talking to someone in there?"

"Sorry, Colonel." Hikaru said as she turned to face the Leader of the Four Holy Swords. "I got distracted by my own subconscious."

"Well, we're two hours away from our designated target. So, are you ready to face the Britannians again?"

"By all means, yes!" Hikaru replied with full determination.

"Then, let's not waste anymore time!" Tohdou told the Fire Knight. "We want to finish this before dinner!"

The moment Hikaru and Tohdou left the room, Nova appeared again smiling at both of them from afar.

* * *

As the ship escorting Nunnally is making its way through the Pacific Ocean, the captain is standing by at the bridge while his crew members concentrate their job at their stations. While looking at the clear blue sky, the Britannian General couldn't help but wonder what Guilford had warned him about earlier. After their conversation back at the California Base, General Upson felt confident that he can take on Britannia's new enemies without any trouble. However, what he didn't know is that they'll be escorted by an enemy vessel, along with a detachment of Black Knights.

"Magic Knights escaping their execution, eh?!" Upson said as he sat on his seat at the bridge while reading his latest newspaper. "It's going to take more than just a few witchcraft-like powers to outsmart a man like me!"

"Don't get too overconfident, sir!" The Captain of ship warned Upson, who is standing next to the general's left. "They almost up quite a challenge against the Knights of the Round."

"SILENCE!" Upson snapped. "They won't get past us, since we have two well-armed Caleron battleships escorting us and our Arms Freighter!"

"We still may need Guilford and the Knights of the Round to back us up too." The Captain informed further.

"Screw them all. I can take on anything that gets in my way!" Upson said in a stubborn tone.

* * *

Fifty miles away from Upson's fleet, the NSX de-cloaked itself as the Autozamian Battleship is going underway towards its targets. The 3 Gekkas appeared on top of the NSX's hull along with the Guren and the three Rune God Knightmares. In front of Rayearth, Zero appears as he looked up towards the clear blue sky. While the NSX was moving, Geo made careful surveillance from the bridge. The moment he sees the Britannian Fleet in a distance, the sub-commander activates his communicator speak to everyone on top of his ship.

"The Britannian fleet is seen on sight. Stand by to engage!" Geo ordered.

"Roger that!" Everyone said in unison.

In a few minutes later, all three Rune Gods drew out their swords and took to the skies as they ascended from the NSX. As for the NSX, the battleship deployed its gun turrets and missile batteries, all of them aiming towards the Logress Battleship.

Facing with such intensity, Hikaru and Geo are getting a bit more eager to fight up close and in person. The moment the NSX reached 3 km closer to the Logress, Geo finally gave out the next order in this battle scenario.

"ENGAGE!" Geo shouted.

In two seconds, the NSX started opening fire at the Logress Battleship, while Upson ordered his crewmen to activate their core luminous shield. In the ensuing bombardment, the Rune Gods advanced forward only meet a large squadron of Britannian gunships that just appeared from behind the Britannian Battleship. As soon as several gunships fired their missiles, the Rune Gods took evasive action before returning fire with their magic. For the Black Knights, they opened fire with their wrist-mounted machine guns while standing firm on top of the NSX's hull.

On top of Rayearth's hand, Zero held on before the Rune God reached the hangar of the Logress Ship. Despite getting shot at by the ship's gun turrets, Hikaru held up her shield, this time without activating its electrical barrier. With ease, she was able to shrug off the bullets from her shield while zeroing in towards the battleship's hangar. Halfway there, Hikaru spotted oncoming missles heading straight for her and Zero. In a well-timed reaction, the Fire Knight finally activated her electrical barrier shield, making the missiles explode upon the barrier.

As soon as Rayearth and Zero got inside the hangar, the masked hero jumped off Rayearth's hand and landed on the floor unharmed. The moment several Britannian Marines drew out their guns and started shooting at Zero and Rayearth, Rayearth blocked their oncoming fire with her shield again. Before any of the Marines got closer, Rayearth raised his sword up high and slammed the blade onto the floor, unleashed a massive shockwave that sent them flying backwards. Due to the resulting impact, most of the marines slammed their backs onto the wall of the hangar in all directions, knocking them out of commission. After the marines were neutralized, 10 Sutherlands dropped down from the ceiling of the hangar. As soon as they landed on their feet, the Knightmares drew out their hatchets and charged at Rayearth with all their might. When Hikaru drew out her sword, she makes her announcement towards Zero without even looking at him.

"Go on ahead, Zero!" Hikaru told the masked hero. "I'll take care of them!"

"Make sure you secure an exit for me as soon as I escape!" Zero replied to the Fire Knight.

"Understood, sir!"

After Zero disappeared into the corridors, Hikaru turned her attention towards the Sutherland on her left, aiming her sword towards its face. Just when the Sutherland struck at Hikaru, she blocked its hatchet with her shield and stabbed the Knightmare with her sword in the torso. In her next move, Hikaru lifted the defeated Sutherland up a few feet above her head and hurled it towards a two Sutherlands up front. As the impaled Sutherland fell on the floor in front of the two Knighmares, they steered towards both Rayearth's left and right hoping to butcher the Rune God all at once. However, Rayearth flung both of his sword arm and shield arm at the two attacking Sutherlands, making them both stagger. Before either Sutherland had any time to regain their posture, Rayearth decapitated the head of the Sutherland on the left with Hikaru's sword, making it collapse onto the hangar floor. For the Sutherland on Hikaru's right, he was met with a grab to the face by the Guren that just followed Hikaru from behind, the moment the NSX got close to the Logress Battleship.

"Don't try to hog all the glory, Hikaru!" Kallen smirked as she raised her voice from inside the Guren. "You still owe me after I got you and your friends out of Pendragon!"

"Fine by me!" Hikaru said. "Let's get e'm!"

After Kallen blew up the Sutherland with the Guren's Radium Claw, she veered her Knightmare towards the 4th Knightmare and impaled it with her Slash Harkens. At the same time, Hikaru charged forward as she jumped over the Guren and slammed Rayearth's right foot into the 5th Sutherland in the face, making him fall onto his back. The moment Rayearth landed on top of the Sutherland, several turrets were aiming at the Rune God and the Red Knightmare from the ceiling and opened fire, giving the remaining Sutherlands some covering fire before they backed away from them. In retaliation, Hikaru charged up her sword while holding her shield above her head and swung a wave of energy at the gun turrets, making them explode violently as the ship started rumbling.

Back at the bridge, Upson spotted the Black Knights, Selece, and Windam intercepting the other two Britannian Escort ship while the NSX headed straight for the arms freighter. As he checked the hangar through one of the internal cameras, Upson spotted that the ship's security team is losing badly.

"Captain, watch the bridge for me!" Upson ordered. "I'll have to take care of the intruders myself!"

Just when the Captain approached the bridge controls, Upson dashed through the hallways and headed straight towards the hangar.

"Damn, those Elevens!" Upson growled. "If I don't deal with them myself, my pride as a Britannian Commander will shatter into a million bits!"

Upson went into another section of the hangar, which was next to where the Guren and Rayearth are at, where his Knightmare Frame is prepped. As he entered the area, he turned on the lights, revealing a Green Vincent Pluton Knightmare Frame standing right in front of Upson. It had dark brown shoulder plates and a silver cross on its tungsten chest. On the Vincent's back, it had a long shafted Maser Vibration Halberd in addition to its slash harkens, sheathed-in MVS, and Needle Blazers. The moment Upson pulled out his key to activate his Knightmare, he embarked onto the Vincent and deployed its landspinners. Without further a due, Upson, who is now piloting the Green Vincent, drove full speed towards the 2 huge doors leading towards where Rayearth and the Guren are at.

* * *

After all of the Sutherlands are eliminated, Rayearth and Guren turned towards their right as they see two doors suddenly explode right before their eyes. When the doors fell flat onto the floor, the Green Vincent came out to greet them with a huge swipe with its MV Halberd. Luckily, the Hikaru and Kallen jumped backwards, avoiding its blade by a mere foot.

"Say your prayers, Elevens!" Upson's voice shouted from the Vincent as he held the battle axe to his right side like a flag post with his right hand. "I'll crush you both with my Vincent. Prepare to be annihilated!"

"You wish!" Kallen and Hikaru both shouted back in unison.

When Upson's Vincent grabbed the Halberd with his left hand, he zoomed towards Rayearth with his landspinners as he lifted the shafted weapon up high above his head. The moment he is about to slam the halberd on top of Rayearth's head, Hikaru made a upper-cut block with her sword and veered the halberd to her left before ramming her shield at Upson's Vincent. Upon impact, Upson held fast against Hikaru's shield in a horizontal stance with his halberd, making him skid backwards before stopping. Grunting in a stern manner, Upson lifted his halberd and shove Rayearth away from his Knightmare with a thrust kick at the Rune God's shield.

As for the Guren, Kallen charged forward to intercept Upson's Knightmare. Before she could reach out and grab the Vincent with her Radium Claw, Kallen was met with a halberd jab aiming directly at the Guren's face. Fortunately, the Guren unleashed its radium waves as soon the halberd's pointed tip made contact with the Guren's Radium Claw. In her second move, Kallen swung her Fork Knife at the Vincent only for Upson to lean the Vincent's head backwards before jumping away from the Guren. Just when he was about to reengage the Guren, Rayearth stepped in again. This time, Hikaru slammed her sword onto the floor and fired up a line of destructive energy towards Upson's Vincent. As the energy exploded in front of his feet, Upson was sent flying 10 feet away from the 2 red Mechs.

When Hikaru approached cautiously towards Upson's Vincent, he reacted by lunging his Halberd at Rayearth only for her to sidestep to her right and chopped off the blade from its shaft with her sword. Just when Hikaru is about to finish off Upson, the Britannian General isn't done yet. He activated one of his Needle Blazers, making the Rune God stagger backwards before he made a backflip away from Hikaru. As soon as Hikaru regained her guard, Upson's Vincent drew out a Maser Vibration Sword from one of its sheathes and lunged at the Magic Knight of Fire. The moment Upson struck with his MVS, Hikaru counterattacked it with her broadsword, blocking the oncoming blade from reaching Rayearth's left shoulder. Rayearth's fist lit up in flames as he is about to unleash a fiery fist at the Green Vincent. The Vincent actually dodged Rayearth's gaunlet and attempted to jab the MVS straight into the Rune God's face. Rayearth tilted his head to the right, barely evading the blade by a mere inch from his cheek. Hikaru jumped backwards and then whacked her sword again at the Vincent, making both her Rune God and Upson's Knightmare trade several more sword strikes at each other. For the Guren, Kallen kept a close eye on Upson's Knightmare waiting for an opportunity to strike at his opening.

* * *

Meanwhile outside of the Logress Class Battleship, after taking down the two Caleron Battleship escorts, Tohdou, his squad, and Geo Metro eliminated most of the defenses and Britannian Knightmares protecting the Arms Freighter. However, just as the NSX fired its tractor beams at the Freighter, Geo started hearing several alarming beeps while piloting the GTO. As soon as he pulled up on of the screens, the Sub-Commander spotted enemy reinforcements coming from behind the NSX.

"ZAZU! Enemy reinforcements!" Geo shouted through the communicator. "They're coming in from your rear!"

Upon hearing Geo, Zazu ordered the NSX to steer above the Arms Freighter while holding onto it with the ship's tractor beam. While ascending higher towards the clear, blue sky, the NSX's engines started to gradually increase their speed. As for Geo, he flew his GTO to the rear of the NSX before getting ready to fire at the Britannian Interceptors. As the Britannian reinforcements got closer, Geo spotted the Mordred, Lancelot Conquista, and the Tristram appear right behind a squad of Vincent Glindas.

"Suzaku!" Geo growled in fury. "What did you do to Commander Zulrich?!"

"You won't be seeing him again for long time, Geo!" Suzaku smirked. "You didn't bring the Magic Knights with you, right?!"

"WRONG! They're here with me." Geo roared as he opened fire at the Lancelot with the GTO's shoulder cannon. "I wish you hadn't joined the Britannian Empire Army in the first place!"

Upon seeing the Green Mecha shooting at him, Suzaku steered his Lancelot to his left in evading the GTO's cannon fire. At the same time, the Lancelot activated its Hadron Blaster with the aid of the VARIS.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY, GEO!" Suzaku shouted as he let loose a powerful beam from the Lancelot's Hadron Blaster.

At first, Geo felt confident in shrugging off the Hadron beam with the GTO's in-built shield. However, the moment the Hadron beam struck its barrier, Geo could feel his cockpit vibrating as the red lights started blaring at an alarming rate. Before he knew it, Geo's Mecha got shoved away from the encroaching Lancelot as it slammed into the rear view of the command bridge of the NSX.

"GEO!" Zazu shrieked as he spotted the GTO suffering critical damage on the main computer.

"DAMN YOU!" Geo gasped for air as he felt blood coming down from his forehead before blacking out.

After getting shot down by the Lancelot, the GTO was laying on the top hull by its right side with its cannon destroyed in the process.

Luckily, Umi and Fuu were nearby when they both saw Geo Metro get taken down by Suzaku's Lancelot. So before the Lancelot got any closer, Selece Omega and Windam Delta intercepted the white Knightmare as they held their swords against his large energy shield. Behind the Lancelot, Guilford and his squad moved in to secure the Logress Battleship while the Mordred and the Tristram moved in to intercept the Black Knights.

* * *

Back inside the hangar of the Logress, Upson attack the Guren next with the Vincent's MVS. Just when the Guren reacted with another Radium surge coming out of its hand while blocking the Vincent's MVS, Upson's communication channel opened up inside his cockpit.

"General, Lord Guilford and the Knights of the Round are here to assist us!" The Captain's voice echoed through Upson's communication channel.

"So what?! I can't always rely on them all the time. I have to fight too you know!" Upson said in a stubborn tone of voice. "I can still win this on my own!"

After disengaging with the Guren, Upson's Vincent steered backwards away from Kallen and opened fire with its slash harkens only for the Kallen to steer clear away from them. Before the Guren continued to charge forward towards the Vincent Pluton, Upson spotted several jousting lances on a nearby weapon rack. In an instant, the Vincent grabbed one of the lances and hurled it at the Guren, only for her to jump over it and kicked Upson's Knightmare in the face, making him crash into a nearby wall, leaving behind a billow of dust in its wake. As soon as Upson's Vincent got up again, he was met with a finishing blow by Rayearth's sword puncturing the General's Knightmare in the chest, with the blade coming out of the humpback cockpit.

"NOOOOO!" Upson screamed in terror as he coughed up blood, feeling the blade of Hikaru's sword penetrating his body. "I-I l-lost..."

After coughing up his last breath, Upson collapsed dead on top of the controls inside his very own Knightmare. The moment Hikaru pulled her sword out of the defeated Vincent, the Green Knightmare fell to its knees and collapsed onto the floor with its torso.

Before either Hikaru or Kallen could say anything, they both received an immediate call from Zazu Torque.

"Hikaru, Kallen! Britannian Reinforcements are here. They're being lead by Lord Guilford and Geo Metro is down!" The young mechanic's voice spoke in fright.

"Let's go, Kallen!" Hikaru told the Black Knight ace as the Guren and Rayearth headed out the exit of the hangar. "We have to help the others!"

"I'm on it!" Kallen replied while following Hikaru from behind.

By the time, Hikaru and Kallen were outside of the hangar, they see most of the Black Knight forces get taken out as they ejected from their knightmares before they exploded. But for the Four Holy Swords, Senba gets killed by one of the Knights of the Round before Tohdou and Nagisa ejected from their Knightmares as they all exploded into nothingness. For Umi and Fuu, they both got pushed back by the Lancelot's and Tristram's advances. Before they knew it, the Mordred opened fire with its missiles, making both of their Rune Gods flying away to safety. Unfortunately, they soon find themselves in the crossfire when a squad of four Sutherlands equipped with float systems hurled several chaos mines at them, making Umi and Fuu get rounded up immediately while in the air.

"This is not good!" Hikaru thought as she ascended her Rune God up into the sky once again. "I hope Zero can make this quick."

After realizing that their mission is going south, Hikaru can't help but fear that she and her friends will not be able to take the Arms Freighter with them and that Zero will not get Nunnally back. Before Hikaru had any time to think about how to address the situation, she spots a Vincent Commander Model, who is equipped with a Float System, charging straight at Fire Knight while in mid-air, barely giving her enough time to hold her ground against the Knightmare's Maser Vibration Spear with her sword and shield.

"It's been awhile, hasn't it Hikaru?!" Guilford's stern voice echoed from inside the Vincent Commander.

"GUILFORD!" Hikaru roared as she swung her sword back at Cornelia's Knight is fury only for Guilford to steer backwards away from it.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" Guilford shouted as he pulled out the Vincent's Assault Rifle and started shooting at Rayearth. "WHERE IS PRINCESS EUPHEMIA?!"

Not replying to Guilford's question, Hikaru steered her Rune God to her right while evading enemy fire coming from his Vincent. In retaliation, Hikaru fired another wave of energy from her sword at the Vincent Commander only for it to fly around in evasive maneuvers, away from the Fire Knight.

Before Kallen intervened, Suzaku charged forward to where she and the Guren are at, firing another Hadron beam at her Red Knightmare.

Just when Kallen used the Guren's Radium Claw to block the oncoming beam, her main weapon started malfunctioning. The next thing Kallen realizes is that the Guren's Claw blew apart, much to her horror.

"NOOOOOOO!" Kallen screamed as her Guren lost its footing on top of the ship's hull.

Upon seeing Kallen's Knightmare falling straight into the ocean, Hikaru shrieked as she tried to break away from Guilford just to rescue the Black Knight Ace.

"KALLEN!" Hikaru screamed as she descended from the sky.

Unfortunately, before Hikaru could get any closer in stopping Kallen from crashing into the ocean, she felt the leg of her Rune God get snagged by a whip belonging to Gino's Tristram in the ankle.

"HEY!" The Fire Knight gasped in horror as she was getting pulled away against her own will.

"Nice try, Hikaru!" Gino smirked. "You're not going to get away from us this time!"

When the Tristram pulled Rayearth upward, Hikaru finds herself get cornered by the three Knights of the Round, Lord Guilford, and his squad of Sutherlands, all of them aiming their weapons at her and the Magic Knights. Seeing themselves surrounded by the Britannian Knightmares, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are now the only ones remaining during the aerial battlefield while still piloting their Rune Gods.

* * *

As Kallen continues to fall straight down along with her Guren, she sees her friends get surrounded by the Britannians. Despite all of her effort of saving herself, Kallen's ejector seat won't budge.

"Forgive me, Guren!" Kallen cried, seeing that her defeat will be imminent. "Hikaru! Mother! Naoto!"

Just when Kallen thinks its the end of the world for her, a small screen popped up, revealing a joyful Rakshata.

"What a perfect position! Sorry to keep you waiting!"

"R-Rakshata?!" Kallen gasped after seeing the Weapons Developer on screen.

"I have the new Black Knight glide wing pack ready for you." Rakshata continued. "You already read the manual from earlier, right?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"Then, it's time!" Rakshata smiled.

"Opening number three launch chamber!" The Black Knight operator announced.

Down by the ocean, a large Black Knight submarine was positioned to help bring back the Black Knights that ejected from their fallen Knightmares. On top of the sub, eight large hatches have all opened up, revealing an expansion made for the Guren MK II.

"Take to the skies, my soaring glide wings!" Rakshata grinned.

As the glide wings launched from submarine's hatches, it flew straight at the falling Guren.

"ROTATE!" Kallen shouted as she makes preparations in upgrading her Knightmare with the glide wings.

"Guidance signal confirmed! Contact angle aligned!"

The moment the glide wings attached to Kallen's Guren, her Knightmare rebooted itself as it started gliding over the water instead of crashing into it. Just like that, the Guren is only flying above the ocean before ascending back into the sky.

"FLY!" Kallen shouted as she regains control her Guren once more.

"Armor-piercing Artillery right arm unit ready!"

"Right arm unit decelerating!" The operator announced as a missile started shooting from the submarine adjacent towards the direction of the flying Guren. "Transmission neuron 0.5 to 0.8 MP! No obstacles detected. Activation shock control confirmed. Linking up!"

The moment the right arm unit attaches itself to the Guren's right should, the Knightmare is now upgraded with a new kind of Radium Claw. At the same time, Guren is now seen with both red and orange embroideries all over its Tungsten armor and face. Now picking itself back up, the Guren opened up its purple energy wings sprouting from its back while raising its Radium Claw up to the sky.

* * *

"This is it, Hikaru. Your time is up!" Lord Guilford announced as he aimed his Assault Rifle at Hikaru's Rune God. "Tell the Autozamians to release the Arms Freighter and leave this area at once!"

"NEVER!" Hikaru shouted in anger. "We'll fight to the last warrior!"

"What stubborn little lady you are!" Gino laughed in amusement.

"SIR! WE'VE GOT INCOM-AAAARRRRRGGGGGH!" One of the Sutherland pilots shouted before he losses contact with Guilford's communication channel.

"What just happened?" Guilford said in confusion.

The moment both Britannians and Elevens turned around, they see the Guren approach them in full fury. As soon as they all took a good look at the Guren, they just realized that the Guren has got wings, much to the awe of the Magic Knights.

"It's about time we have more people using a similar flight system fighting by our side!" Fuu cheered.

"HIKARU, UMI, FUU! STAND CLEAR!" Kallen shouted as she raised the Guren's Radium Claw at the group of Britannian Knightmares.

As soon as all three Rune Gods flew further up above the Britannian Knightmares, a beam long-range was unleashed from the Guren's Claw. In an instant, the rest of Guilford's entire squad was obliterated after getting consumed by the Guren's Radiation beam.

"No way! At long range?" Guilford shrieked as he ejected from his exploding Vincent Commander.

"Oh my god!" Umi gasped in awe. "That's just bad ass!"

Ignoring the Magic Knights, the Tristram and the Mordred were about to engage the Guren only for it to evade both of their firepower with all sorts of intense pinwheel flips and barrel rolls.

"Wow! Look at her go!" Fuu cheered.

In an instant, the Guren slammed its left foot onto the Mordred, making it stagger a bit before evading its barrage of missiles. The moment Kallen had both the Tristram and Mordred in her sights, she activated a widespread Radium wave that only disabled both of the Knightmares as if it were to be an EMP weapon.

"I guess there's only one thing left to do before finishing off this mission!" Hikaru said as she flew towards the Logress Battleship.

The moment the Guren regroups with Rayearth, 15 more Flight-mode Sutherlands appeared in front of them and opened fire with their Assault Rifles, much to Hikaru's and Kallen's annoyance.

"Shall we, Hikaru?!" Kallen grinned.

"Absolutely!" Hikaru nodded.

At the same time, Hikaru powered up her Escudo Broadsword once more, engulfing it into white flames, and Kallen's Radium Claw started lighting up in a red-purple hue. As the Rayearth and the Guren Flight Mode readied their powered up attacks, they unleashed a massive beam of magic and radioactive waves that swirled around each other and swallowed up the entire regiment of Sutherlands, making them explode like fireworks!

Unfortunately, both Rayearth and the Guren's attacks accidentally blew up the Logress' right wing along its engines, making the ship lose its ascension as it heads straight into the sea.

Back at the bridge, the crewmen started feeling the ship ship is shaking violently as red lights started flashing. One of the crew members stood up after spotting a grim result from his computer.

"Captain! We lost our flight system! The engines and the right wing have both been destroyed! We can't take anymore damage! We're heading straight for the ocean!"

"All hands! Prepare to abandon ship!" Captain announced as he and his remaining crewmen left their stations at the command bridge. "And have one of the Knights of the Round rescue Viceroy Nunnally!"

Without sparing anymore seconds, the Captain and his crew ran straight towards the escape pods. After they all left the bridge, it gets consumed by immediate explosions. After Hikaru and Kallen see the escape pods launching out of the fallen Logress, they both just realized that they overdid their actions.

"Whoops! I think that was a little too much, don't you think?!" Kallen said, feeling a bit embarrassed for what she just did.

"Let's not stand around, Kallen!" Hikaru shouted. "Zero is still inside that ship! We need to get him out!"

At the same time, after Suzaku spotted the idiocy that Hikaru and Kallen just displayed in front of the Logress Battleship, the Knight of Seven receives new orders from Cecil.

"Suzaku, we've located the Viceroy she's in the garden space to the rear of the main bridge! You have 47 seconds to rescue her before the ship crashes into the ocean!"

Wasting no time, both the Lancelot and Rayearth zeroed into the last location of where Zero and Nunnally are at.

"HIKARU, YOU IDIOT!" Suzaku growled as he turned towards the Red Rune God! "You and Kallen just had to cause more extensive damage to the ship that Nunnally was in!"

"SHUT UP, TRAITOR!" Hikaru shouted back at the Knight of Seven. "They were all getting in our way! Besides, we can't leave Zero behind!"

Not wanting to stare at each other, Rayearth and Lancelot were racing against each other to get Zero and Nunnally out of the garden area. As soon as the Lancelot got closer to Nunnally's location, Suzaku activated the Core Luminous Cone and with it, he burst his way into the garden area, followed by a powerful gale force from behind the white Knightmare.

"SUZAKU, OVER HERE!" Nunnally cried as she reached her hand out to the Lancelot.

As soon as the Lancelot landed in front of the Viceroy, he picked Nunnally up with his hands before activating the core luminous again while leaving the garden area from inside the Logress.

At the same time, Zero could feel himself flying away from Nunnally by the same gale force engulfing the garden area.

"NO! Not after he sold me out to the Emperor!" Zero thought to himself in horror! "NUNNALLY!"

The moment the Logress lands into the ocean and explodes, Zero was hurled out of the battleship only for Rayearth to catch him with his right hand. After seeing Nunnally and the Lancelot disappear away from the battlefield, Zero slammed his fists onto the huge palm of Rayearth's hand in disgrace.

"DAMMIT! Nunnally!" Zero wailed out of spite.

"Hikaru, this is Zazu!" The voice spoke from Hikaru's communicator. "We've been able to bring all the wounded onboard the NSX and secured the Britannian Arms Freighter. We'll be heading out as soon as you, Zero, and Kallen return to the ship!"

"Understood!" Hikaru said as she turned to face the Guren. "Kallen, let's get out of here!"

As Rayearth and the Guren flew back to the NSX, Zero turned to face the sky in their opposite direction for he couldn't stop thinking about failing to save Nunnally not once but twice.

"Sorry about this, Zero!" Hikaru told the masked hero. "We got a little preoccupied with our enemies!"

Feeling lost in his thoughts, Zero looked down at himself in frustration not knowing how to get Nunnally back anymore. While Kallen felt pity over Zero's failure, she never thought that Zero would suffer more without his little sister. Not wanting to dwell on their failures, the Rune God and the Guren reached the NSX and dropped off Zero before he made his way back inside the ship.

* * *

Back at the command bridge of the NSX, Geo appeared with a huge bandage over his head and holding onto a crutch with his right arm. As he approached the bridge controls, Geo felt a bit disgruntled after losing his fight with Suzaku Kururugi. Not wanting to dwell over his personal loss, Geo sat down on his seat and turned towards Zazu taking a few deep breaths before making his speech with the mechanic.

"Is the Arms Freighter secured?"

"Y-Yes sir! It is!" Zazu said as he showed the sub-commander that the NSX's tow cables are in place around the Arms Freighter v.i.a monitor.

"Good work, Zazu!" Geo said, feeling a bit relieved. "Helmsman! Take us out of here! Our mission is finished!"

"Aye, aye sir!" The helmsman acknowledge as he steered the NSX away from the fallen Logress Battleship.


	9. New Operation in China

Five hours after leaving the fallen Logress Battleship, the NSX started hovering 15 meters above the ocean level. Below the Autozamian Battleship, the Black Knights submarine emerged from the water just waiting to pick up the three remaining members of Tohdou's Holy Swords, Zero, and Kallen. As soon as the NSX gains a steady position, they deployed an external stairwell that leads down towards the submarine below them from the battleship's main access point. As the freedom fighters of Japan made their way to the submarine v.i.a stairway, Zero felt even more lost in his thoughts. He was hesitant to bring Nunnally back with him due to the fact that the youngest Britannian Princess wanted to continue in carrying out Euphy's wish when becoming the new Viceroy of Area 11, he just couldn't bear himself to face Nunnally again until he could find a way to convince her to stop this foolishness. After the Holy Swords members and Kallen went inside the submarine, Zero snapped out of thoughts as he caught up to them but not before saying goodbye to the Magic Knights and the Autozamians.

After the Black Knights Submarine disappeared back into the ocean, the NSX ascended once again while still holding onto the Arms Freighter with its tractor beam. When they directed the stairway to the Freighter, the Autozamian Marines quickly boarded onto the ship and apprehended the Freigher's crew members. Conveniently, none of the Autozamians met any resistance when boarding the Britannian Arms Freighter. Instead, the entire crew immediately surrendered since most of their guards were taken out. To everyone's surprise, the Freighter Captain told the Autozamians that the guards who were protecting the ship earlier were actually very same ones piloting the Sutherland Flight-mode Knightmares that Hikaru and Kallen have just defeated during their air raid. Upon hearing all of this, the Magic Knights couldn't stop laughing their heads off hysterically.

Moving on, the Britannian crewmen were rounded up as prisoners onboard the NSX. When the Magic Knights and Zazu went inside the Arms Freighter, along with a small detachment of Autozamian Marines and Engineers, they uncovered a dozen huge storage containers filled with flight systems, Vincent Wards, core luminous in-built shield generators, and an massive array of advanced Knightmare weaponry inside the cargo hold, all of them strapped onto the floor with metal chains. As soon as the Engineers got to work on securing all of the cargo inside the Freighter, Zazu went to the command bridge of the ship while being escorted by Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu. After taking control of the ship v.i.a drive system, Zazu informs Geo about it. In replying to Zazu's success, Geo ordered the young mechanic to steer the Arms Freighter adjacent to the direction of where the NSX is heading to, considering that he needs to follow Geo back to Cephiro.

Inside the ship's cargo hold, a group engineers setup a mobile Sakuradite hyperspace module to help open up the gateway back to Cephiro, with Hikaru using her Pillar magic to help power it up to the fullest. For Umi and Fuu, they helped Zazu with the navigator at the ship's command bridge before the hyperspace module started activating. In just a few minutes, the Sakuradite Warp gate opened up again in front of both the NSX and the hijacked Arms Freighter. Wasting no time, the NSX started up its engines first before proceeding through the warp-gate with the Arms Freighter following from behind. After both of the ships disappeared, they find themselves traveling through hyperspace once again.

While steering the Arms Freighter and staying on course, Zazu opened up one of the surveillance cameras in the storage area along with a speaker.

"Everyone we're going to jump into hyperspace back to Cephiro in ETA 5 minutes. So, please brace yourself!"

Upon hearing Zazu's announcements coming from the public speakers of the Freighter, most of the Autozamian crew and the Magic Knights held onto most of the metal objects nearby before the floor of the ship started rumbling. As soon as the rumbling stopped everyone went at ease as the Magic Knights and some of the Autozamian crew went back into their crew quarters inside the NSX. But for Hikaru, the moment she went back onboard the NSX, she went into the sick bay to see how Geo is doing, despite his injuries from his fight with Suzaku and the Lancelot.

"Geo, how are you doing?!" Hikaru asked as she entered into the sick bay.

The moment Hikaru sees the injured commander, Geo, who still has dress wrappings around his injured head and limbs, laying on top of a stretcher with his left arm attached to a tube connecting to a IV-bag next to the computer. On the computer, it shows that Geo's vital signals are still stabilized, indicating that Geo will still live to fight another day. However, because Suzaku did a number on Geo, it became clear that the sub-commander needs a break from his battles against the Honorary Britannian turned Knight of the Round.

"I'm afraid I won't be helping out for awhile, kid," Geo grunted in embarrassment. "Since the GTO is critically damaged too, I do need to rest for a few months. Though, I did put in full-time work order for my engineers to repair and upgrade my mecha while I recover."

"I'm sorry, Geo. I've should've been there when I had the chance!" Hikaru said as she sat down next to Geo. "When Zazu told me what happened to you, I was horrified that you might end up like what happened to Eagle if it weren't for your doctors."

"It's not your fault, Hikaru." Geo said as he placed his hand next to Hikaru's cheek. "My strength and combat abilities have their limits too. Just promise me that you'll watch over Zazu until I recover."

"I'll do my best sir!" Hikaru said as she held Geo's hand with her own.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the NSX command bridge, Zazu was left taking care of the operations all over the NSX. Zazu felt a bit nauseous whenever he was ordered to watch over the ship since Geo is stuck inside the sickbay. Because he is still the youngest crewmember onboard the Autozamian Battleship, Zazu still has a lot to learn about piloting Autozamian Mecha, as well as any of Cephiro's customized Knightmare Frames.

For the past three years after Eagle died in battle, Geo had no choice but to intensify Zazu's officer training just so that Zazu will one day command the NSX as the new captain or commander of the Autozamian fleet.

Furthermore, Zazu also has a long way to go when it comes to combat training too. Thankfully, everyday onboard the NSX Geo had Zazu spent 3 hours in the combat simulation room sparring against holograms with his training laser sword and go over pilot simulations in Mecha combat.

As of now, Zazu is promoted from a mechanic to a junior officer equipped with a handgun holstered up to his right hip and hand-mounted, retractable laser sword strapped on top of his right hand. Even though Zazu is already armed, the engineers still haven't developed a new Mecha for Zazu to pilot yet. Instead, they gave Zazu a keypad to pilot one of the Vincent Ward, that was stored in one of the containers onboard the Arms Freighter for now.

As Zazu took out his keypad, he felt a bit scared that Zazu will be on his own when ordering the Zazu crew around. After looking at the key pad for a while, Zazu turned his attention towards the main screen.

"Attention everyone, we'll be heading towards Cephiro in ETA 5 hours!" Zazu announced from the bridge. "I only want a few men at their stations to watch over any activity from the exterior of the ship. The rest of you can take five! You'll all make it back here in four hours or when I notify you in advance."

After hearing what Zazu said, only half of the crew went to their cabins to a nice long break while 5 or 10 members remained at their stations. After most of the crewmen disappeared from the bridge, Hikaru came up from behind Zazu to check up on him.

"Hey Hikaru, are you feeling okay?!" Zazu asked the fire knight.

"I don't know, ever since Geo is stuck at the sickbay, we really need to find a way to keep Autozam's morale in check." Hikaru informed Zazu.

"Yeah, I know. I can't help but feel a bit nervous when Geo attempted to rescue Eagle in Cephiro's castle three years ago. You know what I'm talking about right?" Zazu replied nervously.

"What do you mean?!" Hikaru asked the young mechanic.

"Since I was very close to Geo and Eagle, Geo almost had me command the ship before he left to go find Eagle back during the time we we're invading Cephiro, no offense though. I never really did sign up as part of Eagle's crew just so that they would give me temporary command over this battleship. I only joined because I just wanted to make sure the ship is still intact, as well as fixing up the damages all around it. Being a mechanic is all I lived for after all." Zazu explained further. "But times have changed. Ever since we lost Eagle three years ago, I was given private lessons from Geo over officer training, and combat training."

"Oh, really?" Hikaru asked, with her eyes widened with curiosity. "Well, we do need to prepare for the worst after all, since we're already on board a battleship. You're not the only one who needs to take desperate measures when things get dire. Even though I was youngest in my own family, my elder brothers still taught me how to fight while training in Kendo because they won't always be there for me when I'm in danger. They expect me to learn how to fend for myself. Every situation that involves danger is always different."

"I know what you mean, Hikaru!" Zazu acknowledged.

"By the way, Geo ordered me to look after you until he is fully healed." Hikaru told the young junior officer.

"Then I guess we just can't do things on our own on the battlefield, can we?!" Zazu concluded, realizing that the young Autozamian and the Fire Knight needed to stay close to each other.

In silence, Hikaru and Zazu turned towards hyperspace while they see the helmsmen steer the NSX while maintaining its course.

* * *

In the Castle of Cephiro, Mira appeared at the castle garden while watching the flowers bloom along with two of best her friends one brown-haired boy and a taller girl with pig-tails. As Mira looked up into the sky, she sees birds chirping and the wind blowing through her hair.

"I only wish one day I could visit Hikaru's world!" Mira dreamed.

"Well, maybe if those invaders don't show up again there at all." The brown-haired boy said, who is standing next to Mira.

"Now that you mentioned it, I always keep having those dreams when Lady Hikaru appeared and drove that scary evil lady away." Mira imagined, mentioning the baroness that threatened her along with the villagers that she was with, including her mother.

"The Magic Knights may have been able to save our people again Mira, but we still don't know how long will this war last." The pig-tailed girl told Mira.

"I can only hope that Hikaru and the Magic Knights will defeat the invaders for good." Mira said cheerfully.

"I'm hungry. Can we go get something to eat?" The girl asked.

After hearing what the pig-tailed girl said, Mira and her friends went into the palace to find some food.

On the other side of the garden, Clef appeared in front of the gates waiting for the Autozamians to bring in their loot from Area 11. The moment he was looking up to the sky, he wouldn't imagine how much further will Cephiro have to keep fighting against the Britannians for. Pretty soon, Clef needs to hand Princess Euphemia back to them before the their war with those invaders gets worse.

Behind the Master Mage, several Autozamian engineers were resupplying and repairing his Knightmare since their previous skirmish on the outskirts of Pendragon, along with Ascot's Monolith and Ferio's Green Ranger as well. The moment Clef turned around to face the Knightmares, Ascot and Ferio appeared inside their Knightmare cockpits while going over several functional tests. The moment Clef approached his Archwizard Knightmare, one of the Autozamian Engineers handed the Master Mage an ipad that shows the current status of his Knightmare.

As soon as Clef looked at the Ipad, its small screen shows that both of the Archwizard's shoulders have red flashes over it, indicating that the Archwizard is crippled during the escape from Pendragon. On the Archwizard's back, there was a yellow triangle sign appearing on it, displaying that the Knightmare is low on Sakuradite Energy and needs to refilled before heading out into battle once more.

"Well, I hope Hikaru and the others are able to succeed in bringing in their target from Area 11 very soon." Clef thought to himself. "We're running low on supplies for our Knightmares right now."

For Ascot's Monolith, most of its missile salvos are out of ammo and both of its radium claws are out of Sakuradite energy fillers. While Ferio went over a full scan over his Knightmare, the Green Ranger is down to 25% of Sakuradite energy, most of it in which decrease by 2% out of every shot that its Energy Bowgun makes.

When Lantis checked on his Black Crusader Knightmare, he spotted several cracks all over its tungsten armor due to the damage done by the Perceival during the end of the Black Rebellion in the Tokyo Settlement. Because his Knightmare was left untouched by the Britannians for over one year, the Black Crusader isn't repaired for a long time.

All of Lantis', Ferio's, and Ascot's knightmares are being held up inside the garage underneath the Cephirian Palace waiting to be restocked and fixed up. Unfortunately, because most of the other Cephirian Knightmares was resupplied and repaired first, most of the Knightmare resources that the Cephirian's have ran totally dry in just 2 months. Unless they can find a way to gain more resources from Area 11, the entire Cephirian Army will be currently sitting ducks; it is also the real reason why Geo, the Magic Knights, and his crew went back to Area 11 to meet up with the Black Knights before conducting another mission in capturing one of Britannia's Arms Freighters earlier.

After waiting for one week, Clef is starting to worry that Geo's mission may not be successful. But before Clef is about to notify Lafarga and Caldina about going back to Area 11 to investigate, one of the Cephirian Guards appeared behind the Master Mage to announce a new report.

"Master Mage, we received word that the Magic Knights and the Autozamians have succeeded in securing the target from Area 11." The guard said as he bowed before Clef.

"It's about time they notified us about the situation at hand." Clef muttered in frustration. "I was just about to order Captain Lafarga and Lady Caldina to move in with their forces in Area 11."

"Unfortunately, we do have some bad news, sir!" The guard added in. "Commander Geo is badly injured and needs medical attention ASAP!"

"I'll put in a work order for our doctors." Clef acknowledged. "Bring them up at port!"

"Yes sir!" The Guard saluted as he left the area.

The moment the guard disappeared, Clef went towards where Ferio, Ascot, and Lantis are inside the garage and told them all what the guard said on his report. Feeling relieved that they're about to prep their Knightmares very soon, all three Cephirians accompanied Clef to the port which is up several levels of the palace.

As soon as they went to the floor, to met up with the Autozamians and the Magic Knights, the Cephirians saw the NSX appear right in front of them, with the secured Arms Freighter being lowered down inside the castle courtyard. At the same time, the guards ordered everyone to clear the courtyard as the Arms Freighter landed softly on the ground in front of the palace's entrance. After a few minutes of silence, the autozamian crew opened up the main hatch of the Arms Freighter, letting the engineers move in and gathered all of the Sakuradite Energy Fillers, Knightmares, and Weapons before bringing them all into the garage.

For the NSX, the ship brought forth a bridge connector that stretched from the ship's entrance all the way to the floor of where Clef, Ferio, Lantis, and Ascot are all at. The Magic Knights and Zazu appeared as they were seen bringing in a mobile stretcher, which was holding Geo Metro on top of.

"Good lord, Geo. What the hell happened to you?!" Lantis gasped, the moment he saw Geo covered up in dress wounds.

"I'm afraid Suzaku has gotten stronger with his Lancelot. I thought I was seen stars when he struck at me back there. I'm sorry if you have to see me like this." Geo grunted in pain.

"We really need to get our Knightmares upgraded as soon as possible." Umi told the group. "If Suzaku was able to let loose more hell upon us with the Lancelot Conquista, then Britannia's forces will unleash a more stronger might as well."

"Ms. Umi's right." Fuu added in. "We have to take this up to a whole new level."

"I understand. Get Geo to the hospital wing. Zazu, have your engineers start tuning up our Knightmares immediately." Clef said, giving out orders to the Magic Knights and the Autozamian mechanic.

"It will be done, Master Mage." The Magic Knights and Zazu all said in unison.

As the Magic Knights were on their way to the hospital wing just to drop Geo off, Zazu took the castle's elevator down to the ground level in order to meet up with his fellow crew members in tuning up the Cephirian Knightmares.

In just one hour later... Hikaru left the hospital wing first before Umi and Fuu followed her from behind. The next thing Hikaru has in her mind was to check up on Clef in the war room. On the way there, the Princesses of Chizeta and Fahren appeared from the mess hall. It appears that they have all just finished their breakfast in the Cephirian Palace Cafeteria.

"Man, that cake was delicious." Aska chirped.

"Tell me about it." Tatra gigged.

"Oh hey guys!" Umi called out to the three Princesses. "I didn't think I'd see you all here."

"Well, we may have been able to rescue the Cephirians from those Britannian bullies, but since the war with the Empire is still far from over, we're not really leaving Cephiro unprotected yet." Tarta explained to Umi. "We're just on our way to meet up with Master Mage Clef in the war room."

"I see." Fuu said calmly. "Well, we're on our way to the war room as well. There is still some work to be done in order to keep the Britannian activity at bay."

"Let's go guys." Hikaru told the rest of the group. "We haven't got all day."

As Hikaru ran ahead to the war room, the rest followed her from behind down the hallways. On the way to the war room, Umi and Fuu noticed through the windows that the Dome of Fahren and the Bravada of Chizeta have also docked next to the Castle of Cephiro as well. After looking at the two ships for a few minutes, Fuu and Umi also looked down to see the Chizetian and Fahrenian guard standing in front of the main gates with several Cephirian Knightmares patrolling the battlements as sentries.

Feeling relieved for a moment, the Magic Knights were convinced that their friends from the other neighboring countries are still here to back them up. For Hikaru, she called out to Umi and Fuu to have them keep moving to the war room. The moment they arrive, Zazu is seen along with Commander Topaz, Lantis, and Lafarga outside of the war room. Not wasting any time, everyone entered the war room to see Clef looking at the broadcasting screen 15 feet above him.

The moment the Magic Knights and their friends looked up, they see Nunnally making her speech in front of the Britannians as the new Viceroy of Area 11. Next to her left, they see Suzaku Kururugi again wearing his Knight of the Round uniform. Hikaru couldn't help but feel a bit angry from the inside that her former friend couldn't come to his senses yet. Due to the circumstances, Hikaru has still yet to defeat him in battle by all means. From the other side of the screen, Nunnally's speech is taking place back at the Britannian Government Bureau. Before it could begin, a woman's voice echoed out from the PA speakers.

 **"Attention. The Inauguration speech of the new Viceroy of Area 11 is about to begin."**

 _Since Zero has failed to capture Nunnally, I wonder what is she going to say to the public?!_ Hikaru thought as Nunnally raises her voice soothingly.

 **"How do you do everyone?! I am Nunnally vi Britannia of the Royal Family; 87th line to the Imperial Throne. Due to the unfortunately, timely loss of Duke Colaris recently, I shall be assuming the position as the Viceroy of Area 11 in his place. I may not be able to see or walk, but I'll do my best to support this area with all my heart. So please, help me help you."**

"It's hard to believe that little, crippled girl back at the Ashford Academy is actually a Britannian Princess too, just like Ms. Cornelia and Ms. Euphy." Fuu murmured.

"Those Britannians are full of unexpected surprises!" Lantis thought. "Though, I doubt she is much of a threat like Cornelia was."

 **"This may be unexpected but I'd like everyone of you to cooperate with me." Nunnally continued with her speech. "As your new Viceroy, I'd like to recreate the administrative zone of Japan."**

Upon hearing this, Princess Aska, Tarta, and Tatra are feeling pretty disgusted about it. This was due to the fact that when Euphy attempted this, millions of Hikaru's, Umi's, Fuu's people were killed on that day. Even though it has been one year since that incident at Mt. Fuji occurred, they still couldn't forget about the horrors that took place there, neither will they forgive Britannia for what they did there. But for the Magic Knights, Lafarga, and Clef, they still kept their cool because they're feeling a bit suspicious behind Euphy's unexpected behavior. Of course, they did their best not to tell anyone that Euphy is still alive and in exile because it'll just encourage them to chase after the 3rd Princess of Britannia all the way to the ends of the world.

Upon hearing that Nunnally wished to have the Elevens call themselves Japanese, the Magic Knights also wished that they helped Zero capture Nunnally when they still have the chance. Unfortunately, since they missed that opportunity during their battle when Upson's fleet at the pacific, they won't be facing Viceroy Nunnally in person anytime soon. As of now, they're not sure if they can trust Princess Nunnally with that kind of decision because they're all afraid that all of Cephiro and Japan will be fall into another blood bath again.

 **"Even when that tragic misunderstanding occurred last year at Mt. Fuji, I do not believe that the attempt to establish that zone is a mistake. I also wish to convince the Cephirians and their allies to at least end their conflict with the Empire with peaceful terms. Therefore, I wish to convince all natives and citizens to live in a gentler world."**

"GENTLER WORLD MY ASS!" Tarta hissed as she slammed her fist on the table. "She may not look like a threat, but that doesn't mean that the rest of her fellow Britannians won't pose a threat to our existence."

"Tarta, please!" Tatra said, trying to placate her younger sister.

"I wouldn't even dare try to let the other Chizetians anywhere near those Britannians either; I can't imagine a tragic event like this befalling on our people too." Tarta snapped at her elder sister before turning her attention towards the Knight of Water. "Umi, you know what I'm talking about."

"Yeah, I know!" Umi said nervously.

 **"And those of you Magic Knights and the Black Knights, I wish to beg your forgiveness from the rest of the Britannian Royal Family and please participate in the Zone as well. I will assure you that I will not make the same mistakes that my sister Princess Euphemia did. We can work something out in taking the first steps in making this right for all of us."**

Not wanting to hear another word of Princess Nunnally from the screen, Tarta suddenly snapped and charged straight at the screen.

"YOU LIAR!" Tarta shouted as she jumped up in the air.

In an instant, Tarta swung a mid-air kick at the monitor and smashed the electronic with her feet, making it crash straight on the floor.

"I'm not falling for this, not EVER!" Tarta snarled as she tried to catch her breath.

"Sister, please calm down!" Tatra told Tarta.

Ignoring what her elder sister said, Tarta grunted in disbelief as she stormed out of the war room in silence. For the rest of the group, everyone but Tatra stood their totally shocked not knowing what to say to the young princess of Chizeta. The moment Tatra turned towards the crowd, she did an apologetic bow first.

"I'm terribly sorry everyone. I'll do my best to pay up for the damages as soon as possible!" Tatra said to Clef, Lantis, and Lafarga, feeling embarrassed for what her sister just did.

After a few minutes of silence, Clef turned his attention on the map table in front of the Magic Knights and Cephiro's commanding officers. The Master Mage raised his staff up to the ceiling as the blue orb on it lit up. In just half a second, a wide ray of blue light came from Clef's staff as it illuminated the entire map table, making the landscape of the entire land of Cephiro appear before them. All around the castle, they see that their castle is surrounded by forests and floating mountains. Before anyone could say what Clef is doing, the Master Mage makes his announcement first.

"When you Magic Knights left with Autozam to secure the target at Area 11, I had Lafarga and Lantis send in some of their patrol squads to setup with watchtowers in the floating mountains." Clef said as he pointed his staff at the floating mountains at the northern and southern positions of the castle. "They'll be on the lookout for any enemy activity that is 500 clicks away from our borders. Each of their squads has a sorcerer that will use their magic to teleport their reports straight to us whenever they spot the enemy within that range. That way, it'll give us time to have the men defend the wall before they initiate their attacks upon his castle again."

"We also cast several cloaking dome spells over those watchtowers, just to make sure that the Britannians do not spot them in their sights." Lantis added in.

"I hope it'll be enough for them to notify us of the enemies presence without getting caught." Umi muttered.

"From the research and technology blueprints that Rakshata gave us and from the supplies that we secured from that Arms Freighter, we still need more time to upgrade all of our Knightmares; possibly about 3 days tops." Zazu reported.

"We also need to stay in touch with the Black Knights." Lafarga suggested. "They still have yet to find a better place to setup their fort, now that they lost control of the Tokyo Settlement."

"What about Mt. Fuji? Didn't they took over that section after the Britannians stationed there have all been defeated?" Hikaru asked, not forgetting the assault upon the place where the Japanese massacre took part in.

"A lot of things have changed since you and your friends were locked up in Pendragon, Hikaru." Ferio spoke as he appeared from the entrance of the war room.

Upon hearing Ferio's voice, the group was a bit surprised to see the Cephirian prince appear before them unexpectedly.

"Now that you mentioned it, where have you been all this time while we were inside Pendragon?" Umi asked the Cephirian Prince.

"Ever since the end of the Black Rebellion, me and my men were forced to flee along with Urabe's Black Knight squad. While on the run, we went back to Mt. Fuji to have the rest of our men evacuate immediately. The Knights of the Round were on their way to Mt. Fuji to reclaim that section right after Prince Schiezel took you and your friends away from the Tokyo Settlement." Ferio explained.

"You don't mean..." Clef said in a state of shock.

"We did left a detachment of Cephirian Guardsmen and Knightmares behind to defend Mt. Fuji before the rest of our main force launched our staged attack upon the Britannian Government Bureau in the Tokyo Settlement." Ferio confirmed. "They were under the orders of Guard Captain Demeron."

"Captain Demeron?!" Lafarga asked feeling a bit nauseous over where Ferio's speech is heading.

"Unfortunately, one of the Black Knight scouts informed us of the Britannian Knights of the Round will be at Mt. Fuji in 3 hours. So, I got my men onboard Urabe's airship before we took off. We didn't have enough time to get the prisoners onboard our airship so we left them all behind. Captain Demeron stayed behind to buy us some time to escape. For our Guard Captain, he didn't survive when the Knights of the Round reached Mt. Fuji. Demeron was toast, along with his guardsmen squad."

"I guess we lost another one of our own commanding officers then." Clef said, feeling a bit guilty over losing more Cephirian soldiers.

"We did managed to pick up Kallen Kouzki and her Guren in just two days later after we fled Mt. Fuji; after that we all went into hiding deep within a nearby forest to setup camp. For several months, we dispatched a few of our spies to find you." Ferio explained to the Magic Knights.

"How did you find us in Pendragon?" Fuu asked Ferio.

"Our spies managed to capture one of the Britannian pilots who was one a surveillance mission in rooting out stranglers that fled the battlefield in the Tokyo Settlement. Of course, Kallen did a number on that pilot during his interrogation and he finally admit that they took you girls to Pendragon to await your trail for your acts of terrorism. It wasn't easy trying to plan a prison break from Pendragon since it is the capital of the Holy Britannian Empire. Thankfully, I was able to use a magic scroll to turn Urabe's airship completely invisible from the Britannia's radar there. As soon as we reached Pendragon unnoticed, we already saw that you Magic Knights have already broke free from your fate. So, we seized the advantage of taking the Britannians down by surprise, the moment we got closer to you girls." Ferio continued. "The rest, you already know."

"Well, it's a good thing you and Urabe hadn't went through that Sakuradite Gateway back there." Umi said, feeling relieved upon learning what Ferio just went through before being rescued by him.

"But now that Mr. Urabe is dead, we really need to avoid getting recaptured by the Britannians because our luck won't last forever." Fuu said, proving out a point to Ferio, Umi, and Hikaru.

"What do we do now, Clef?" Hikaru asked the Master Mage. "I know we're still here for a good reason, right?"

"Oh yeah, sorry for the delay." Clef apologized as he finally gets straight to the point. "After you went with Geo to help him secure one of Britannia's Arms Freighters, I sent in some spies to infiltrate Pendragon thanks to Princess Aska's aid. They have just informed us that one of the Britannian Royals is planning an arranged marriage to the Empress of China; by doing so, Britannia will be paving way for an alliance with the Chinese Federation."

"That can't be right!" Umi snapped. "It's bad enough that they were illegitimately following orders from an ex-cabinet member of Japan last year. And now, they are going to form an allegiance with Britannia?"

"What the Chinese Federation did last year was not appropriate. This is a pretty much different approach. I fear that if the Empire is able to gain their support from the Chinese Federation, they might try to launch another massive attack with their forces as well. After all, you girls didn't forget that you helped Zero intercept the Chinese Federation last year did you?!" Clef added in. "Diethard told me all about it a few days later after that attack on Kyushu block."

Upon hearing such a revelation, the Magic Knights felt a bit nauseous for their actions back at Kyushu. For Fuu, she couldn't help but think that their effort of helping Zero and Mr. Suzaku during that battle will get the Chinese Federation their attention. Despite their efforts of being honorable knights, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu may have just started a war with the Chinese people too.

"I'm not that impressed when you girls got involved in a battle that Cephiro isn't concerned with. However, since your efforts has convinced Princess Euphy to order the Britannian forces to stand down from attacking our country, I can't say I was disappointed." Clef continued with his briefing. "Though, the last thing we need is to have another enemy country going after us when we did some damage to their forces."

"Um Mr. Clef?!" Fuu spoke while trying to mention the Master Mage another fact. "They did say on the news that the Chinese government didn't confirm any responsibility over what Mr. Sawazaki did. So, I'm sure they won't come after us since it was done out of a misunderstanding."

"I'm sorry Fuu. But if the Britannian Empire successfully formed an allegiance with the Chinese Federation they'll likely exchange info over what we did to keep Empire at bay. Worse than that, forces from both countries will soon overrun our castle just to force us to hand over Princess Euphemia back. So, I'll have to send you girls in an undercover mission to confirm that they won't use the Federation's power to gain the Empire an unfair advantage against us." Clef informed as he raised his staff over the map, using his magic to changing Cephiro's landscape into a large blue area surrounding the Asia Continent.

"You Magic Knights, Zazu, Aska, and the twin Princesses of Chizeta will all be meeting up with Zero at the next destination which is 500 miles outside of China, along with a company of your best men." The Master Mage told them as he used his magic ring to pinpoint a rally point at where the Black Knights will be showing up at. "We're going to need more time for our Cephirian forces to regain their strength. Ever since the Black Rebellion, we lost like half of our entire Cephirian Army when the Knights of the Round came in. They already did a number on us without even breaking a sweat. So, if we were to face them again on the battlefield, our warriors need to ascend to a whole new level first. You Magic Knights are our only hope left."

"I understand, Clef!" Hikaru said, feeling a bit uneasy about getting involved in dealing with the Chinese Federation again.

"Good, they'll inform you on which targets will be involved in the operation in China." Clef said briefly before turning towards Zazu, allowing the mechanic to make his speech.

"I've just been informed that the Black Knights will be relocating themselves to another destination. Once they're done establishing their new base, they'll send in our coordinates on where we will pinpoint the location of where the Sakuradite Gateway will be sending us to." Zazu announced. "We'll pack up and await until then."

"Thanks Zazu. Everyone, dismissed." Clef acknowledged the young mechanic, officer.

After everyone left the war room, Zazu went back to the NSX to get packed up for the trip to the new Black Knights base; same goes for the Princess of Fahren. As for the Magic Knights, they followed Lantis, Lafarga, and Topaz back into the garage where they have been told that their Knightmares are finished with their upgrades.

However, Umi went down to the cafeteria to check up and Tarta and Tatra to see how are the Chizetian Princesses are doing. As soon as Umi saw them, Tarta was sitting next to Tatra sulking after hearing about what Viceroy Nunnally said on broadcast. Before Umi could say anything, Tarta makes her speech in front of the Magic Knight of Water.

"I do regret making such a scene back there, Umi. But ever since I saw what they did to your people, I almost lost it. I mean, the previous viceroys of Area 11 were just as ruthless and merciless. I doubt that Britannian Princess is going to be any different."

"Well, she didn't seem that much of a hostile when I first met her in Ashford Academy." Umi replied, trying to deny Nunnally's grim future. "She was just a blind, disabled, young girl."

"Unless there is strong evidence that Viceroy Nunnally won't threaten us, people of the New World, I'm not falling for any of her decisions in Area 11." Tarta retorted. "Anyway, since we both missed Clef's briefing, do you think you can tell us what we're going to do now?"

After hearing Tarta's request, Umi briefly explained the operation in China involving the arranged marriage between the Chinese Empress and one of the leaders of the Holy Britannian Empire. Upon listening to what Umi said, Tarta took a deep breath before she and Tatra went back to their ship for preparing themselves to meet up with the Black Knights are their rendezvous.

* * *

The moment the lights turned on inside the garage, the Cephirian Warriors see that only a handful of their Knightmares are equipped with Integrated Float Systems, thanks to the Autozamian Engineers and the new Knightmare parts that they have recovered from the Arms Freighter; the same goes for Ascot's Monolith, Caldina's Dancing Siren, and Topaz's newly customized Knightmare.

Topaz's new Knightmare is now seen as an orange Akatsuki Command Model. It is now equipped with a Maser Spear, Tower Shield, MV Swords, and a wrist-mounted energy arbalest attached to its left hand, which is replaced from the wrist-mounted bolt-casters. In addition, several more of Cephirian Knightmares are now upgraded with the same upgraded weapons to that of Topaz's Knightmare; except that they're still painted mostly in blue tungsten armor, embroidered with red linings. They've all been developed from their Gloucesters into newly customized Gareths. Unlike the Britannian Gareths, the Autozamian Engineers replaced their heads with Knights Templar Sugarloaf heads and that their shoulders are equipped with arrow-like harkens. Both of the Cephirian Gareth's hands have dual-wield Arbalests mounted on both of their wrists. Hung on the Gareth's backs and over their right shoulders are huge Maser Spears and Halberds attached with slings. Last but not least, most of their MVS are holstered up to their waists and sheathed into their scabbards.

For the Monolith, Dancing Siren, the Black Crusader, and the Lancelot Blitz, their weapons are now enhanced with Sakuradite, plasma energy allowing them to penetrate very thick Tungsten armor with ease.

After taking a good look at most of the upgraded Cephirian Knightmares, Zazu felt totally stunned by such an awe appearance. After careful consideration, the mass-production of new Knightmares that the Cephirians will be using are now identified as the Cephiro's Centurion Gareths. Before he could say anything about it, one of the engineers handed Zazu a PDA, in which shows that his Autozam Mecha is now ready for him to use onto the battlefield.

"Man, this is going to be so much fun." Zazu said excitedly. "Then again, we still need time to get all of these Knightmare Frames ready for combat so, only one legion of Cephirian guardsmen will be piloting one battleforce of 300 Centurion Gareths while accompanying us during our operation. The rest of our forces will stay behind and guard the Castle until the all of the Centurion Gareths are developed and ready for combat."

"Understood." Lantis acknowledged. "Let's move everyone, we have no time to lose."

In response to Lantis' orders, the legion of Cephirian Guardsmen went inside their Centurion Gareths and proceeding onboard the Bravada and the Dome of Fahren, along with Cephiro's Warriors, Zazu Torque, and the Magic Knights. The moment they went inside the ships of Chizeta and Fahren, the princesses were already at the bridge giving out their command to departure to their new destination, leaving the NSX and Geo Metro behind at the castle.


End file.
